BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 


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6  2  58 


PliiitoKraph  copyrifjlit  by  Klliott  &  Fry 

ARTHUR    JAMES    BALFOUR 


BRITISH    POLITICAL 
PORTRAITS 


By  JUSTIN  McCarthy 


NEW  YORK 

THE  OUTLOOK  COMPANY 

1903 


COPYRIGHT,    1903,    BY   THE   OUTLOOK    COMPANY 

Published  March,  igoj 


CONTENTS 

1.  ARTHUR  JAMES  BALFOUR  i 

2.  .UmOJALISmiRY  25 

3.  LORD  ROSEBERY  49 

4.  JOSEPH  CHAMBERLAIN  73 

5.  HENRY  LABOUCHERE  99 

6.  JOHN  MORLEY  125 

7.  LORD  ABERDEEN  151 

8.  JOHN  BURNS  177 

9.  SIR  MICHAEL  HICKS-BEACH  203 

10.  JOHN  E.  REDMOND  229 

11.  SIR  WILLIAM  HARCOURT  255 

12.  JAMES  BRYCE  281 

13.  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN       307 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 


ARTHUR  JAMES  BALFOUR 

My  first  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Arthur  J. 
Balfour,  who  recently  became  Prime  Minister 
of  King  Edward  VII.,  was  made  in  the  earliest 
days  of  my  experience  as  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  Fourth  party,  as  it 
was  called,  had  just  been  formed  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  late  Lord  Randolph  Churchill. 
The  Fourth  party  was  a  new  political  enter- 
prise. The  House  of  Commons  up  to  that 
time  contained  three  regular  and  recognized 
political  parties  —  the  supporters  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  supporters  of  the  Opposition,  and 
the  members  of  the  Irish  Nationalist  party,  of 
whom  I  was  one.  Lord  Randolph  Churchill 
created  a  Fourth  party,  the  business  of  which 
was  to  act  independently  alike  of  the  Govern- 
ment, the  Opposition,  and  the  Irish  National- 
ists. At  the  time  when  I  entered  Parliament 
the  Conservatives  were  in  power,  and  Conserv- 
ative statesmen  occupied  the  Treasury  Bench. 
The  members  of  Lord  Randolph's  party  were 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

all  Conservatives  so  far  as  general  political 
principles  were  concerned,  but  Lord  Randolph's 
idea  was  to  lead  a  number  of  followers  who 
should  be  prepared  and  ready  to  speak  and  vote 
against  any  Government  proposal  which  they 
believed  to  be  too  conservative  or  not  con- 
servative enough ;  to  support  the  Liberal  Oppo- 
sition in  the  rare  cases  when  they  thought  the 
Opposition  was  in  the  right;  and  to  support 
the  Irish  Nationalists  when  they  believed  that 
these  were  unfairly  dealt  with,  or  when  they  be- 
lieved, which  happened  much  more  frequently, 
that  to  support  the  Irishmen  would  be  an  an- 
noyance to  the  party  in  power. 

The  Fourth  party  was  made  up  of  numbers 
exactly  corresponding  with  the  title  which  had 
been  given  to  it.  Four  men,  including  the 
leader,  constituted  the  whole  strength  of  this 
little  army.  These  men  were  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill,  Arthur  J.  Balfour,  John  Gorst  (now 
Sir  John  Gorst),  and  Sir  Henry  Drummond 
Wolff,  who  has  during  more  recent  years  with- 
drawn altogether  from  parliamentary  life  and 
given  himself  up  to  diplomacy,  in  which  he  has 
won  much  honorable  distinction.  Sir  John 
Gorst  has  recently  held  office  in  the  Govern- 
ment, and  is  believed  to  have  given  and  felt 


ARTHUR  JAMES   BALFOUR 

little  satisfaction  in  his  official  career.  He  is  a 
man  of  great  ability  and  acquirements,  but  these 
have  been  somewhat  thrown  away  in  the  busi- 
ness of  administration. 

The  Fourth  Party  certainly  did  much  to 
make  the  House  of  Commons  a  lively  place.  Its 
members  were  always  in  attendance  —  the 
whole  four  of  them  —  and  no  one  ever  knew 
where,  metaphorically,  to  place  them.  They 
professed  and  made  manifest  open  scorn  for  the 
conventionalities  of  party  life,  and  the  parlia- 
mentary whips  never  knew  when  they  could  be 
regarded  as  supporters  or  opponents.  They 
were  all  effective  debaters,  all  ready  with  sar- 
casm and  invective,  all  sworn  foes  to  dullness 
and  routine,  all  delighting  in  any  opportunity 
for  obstructing  and  bewildering  the  party  which 
happened  to  be  in  power.  The  members  of 
the  Fourth  party  had  each  of  them  a  distinct 
individuality,  although  they  invariably  acted  to- 
gether and  were  never  separated  in  the  division 
lobbies.  A  member  of  the  House  of  Commons 
likened  them  once  in  a  speech  to  D'Artagnan 
and  his  Three  Musketeers,  as  pictured  in  the 
immortal  pages  of  the  elder  Dumas.  John 
Gorst  he  described  as  Porthos,  Sir  Henry 
Drummond  Wolff  as  Athos,  and  Arthur  Bal- 

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BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

four  as  the  sleek  and  subtle  Aramis.  When  I 
entered  Parliament  I  was  brought  much  into 
companionship  with  the  members  of  this  inter- 
esting Fourth  party.  One  reason  for  this  habit 
of  intercourse  was  that  we  sat  very  near  to  one 
another  on  the  benches  of  the  House.  The 
members  of  the  Irish  Nationalist  party  then,  as 
now,  always  sat  on  the  side  of  the  Opposition, 
no  matter  what  Government  happened  to  be  in 
power,  for  the  principle  of  the  Irish  Nationalists 
is  to  regard  themselves  as  in  perpetual  opposi- 
tion to  every  Government  so  long  as  Ireland  is 
deprived  of  her  own  national  legislature.  Soon 
after  I  entered  the  House  a  Liberal  Govern- 
ment was  the  result  of  a  general  election,  and 
the  Fourth  party,  as  habitually  conservative, 
sat  on  the  Opposition  benches.  The  Fourth 
party  gave  frequent  support  to  the  Irish  Na- 
tionalists in  their  endeavors  to  resist  and  ob- 
struct Government  measures,  and  we  therefore 
came  into  habitual  intercourse,  and  even  com- 
radeship, with  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  and 
his  small  band  of  followers. 

Arthur  Balfour  bore  little  resemblance,  in 
appearance,  in  manners,  in  debating  qualities, 
and  apparently  in  mould  of  intellect,  to  any  of 
the  three  men  with  whom   he  was  then  con- 

4 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 

stantly  allied.  He  was  tall,  slender,  pale,  grace- 
ful, with  something  of  an  almost  feminine 
attractiveness  in  his  bearing,  although  he  was 
as  ready,  resolute,  and  stubborn  a  fighter  as 
any  one  of  his  companions  in  arms.  He  had 
the  appearance  and  the  ways  of  a  thoughtful 
student  and  scholar,  and  one  would  have  asso- 
ciated him  rather  with  a  college  library  or  a 
professor's  chair  than  with  the  rough  and  bois- 
terous ways  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He 
seemed  to  have  come  from  another  world  of 
thought  and  feeling  into  that  eager,  vehement, 
and  sometimes  rather  uproarious  political  as- 
sembly. Unlike  his  uncle.  Lord  Salisbury,  he 
was  known  to  enjoy  social  life,  but  he  was 
especially  given  to  that  select  order  of  aesthetic 
social  life  which  was  "sicklied  o'er  with  the 
pale  cast  of  thought,"  a  form  of  life  which  was 
rather  fashionable  in  society  just  then.  But  it 
must  have  been  clear  even  to  the  most  super- 
ficial observer  that  he  had  a  decided  gift  of 
parliamentary  capacity.  He  was  a  fluent  and  a 
ready  speaker  and  could  bear  an  effective  part 
in  any  debate  at  a  moment's  notice,  but  he 
never  declaimed,  never  indulged  in  any  flight 
of  eloquence,  and  seldom  raised  his  clear  and 
musical  voice  much  above  the  conversational 

5 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

pitch.  His  choice  of  language  was  always 
happy  and  telling,  and  he  often  expressed  him- 
self in  characteristic  phrases  which  lived  in  the 
memory  and  passed  into  familiar  quotation. 
He  had  won  some  distinction  as  a  writer  by  his 
"  Defense  of  Philosophic  Doubt,"  by  a  volume 
of  "  Essays  and  Addresses,"  and  more  lately  by 
his  work  entitled  "  The  Foundations  of  Belief." 
The  first  and  last  of  these  books  were  inspired 
by  a  graceful  and  easy  skepticism  which  had 
in  it  nothing  particularly  destructive  to  the 
faith  of  any  believer,  but  aimed  only  at  the  not 
difficult  task  of  proving  that  a  doubting  inge- 
nuity can  raise  curious  cavils  from  the  practical 
and  argumentative  point  of  view  against  one 
creed  as  well  as  against  another.  The  world 
did  not  take  these  skeptical  ventures  very  seri- 
ously, and  they  were  for  the  most  part  regarded 
as  the  attempts  of  a  clever  young  man  to  show 
how  much  more  clever  he  was  than  the  ordi- 
nary run  of  believing  mortals.  Balfour's  style 
was  clear  and  vigorous,  and  people  read  the 
essays  because  of  the  writer's  growing  position 
in  political  life,  and  out  of  curiosity  to  see  how 
the  rising  young  statesman  could  display  him- 
self as  the  avowed  advocate  of  philosophic 
skepticism. 

6 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 

Arthur  Balfour  took  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  attack  made  upon  the  Liberal  Government 
in  1882  on  the  subject  of  the  once  famous  Kil- 
mainham  Treaty.  The  action  which  he  took  in 
this  instance  was  avowedly  inspired  by  a  desire 
to  embarrass  and  oppose  the  Government  be- 
cause of  the  compromise  into  which  it  had  en- 
deavored to  enter  with  Charles  Stewart  Parnell 
for  some  terms  of  agreement  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  legislation  in  Ireland  ought  to  be  ad- 
ministered. The  full  history  of  what  was  called 
the  Kilmainham  Treaty  has  not,  so  far  as  I 
know,  been  ever  correctly  given  to  the  public, 
and  it  is  not  necessary,  when  surveying  the  po- 
litical career  of  Mr.  Balfour,  to  enter  into  any 
lengthened  explanation  on  the  subject.  Mr. 
Parnell  was  in  prison  at  the  time  when  the  ar- 
rangement was  begun,  and  those  who  were  in 
his  confidence  were  well  aware  that  he  was  be- 
coming greatly  alarmed  as  to  the  state  of  Ire- 
land under  the  rule  of  the  late  W.  E.  Forster, 
who  was  then  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  and  under  whose  operations  lead- 
ing Irishmen  were  thrown  into  prison  on  no 
definite  charge,  but  because  their  general  con- 
duct left  them  open  in  the  mind  of  the  Chief 
Secretary  to  the  suspicion  that  their  public  agi- 

7 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

tation  was  likely  to  bring  about  a  rebellious 
movement.  Parnell  began  to  fear  that  the  state 
of  the  country  would  become  worse  and  worse 
if  every  popular  movement  were  to  be  forcibly 
repressed  at  the  time  when  the  leaders  in  whom 
the  Irish  people  had  full  confidence  were  kept 
in  prison  and  their  guidance,  control,  and  au- 
thority withdrawn  from  the  work  of  pacification. 
The  proposed  arrangement,  whether  begun  by 
Mr.  Parnell  himself  or  suggested  to  him  by 
members  of  his  own  party  or  of  the  English 
Radical  party,  was  simply  an  understanding 
that  if  the  leading  Irishmen  were  allowed  to 
return  to  their  public  work  the  country  might 
at  least  be  kept  in  peace  while  English  Liberal- 
ism was  devising  some  measures  for  the  better 
government  of  Ireland.  The  arrangement  was 
in  every  sense  creditable  alike  to  Parnell  and 
to  the  English  Liberals  who  were  anxious  to  co- 
operate with  him  in  such  a  purpose.  But  it 
led  to  some  disturbance  in  Mr.  Gladstone's 
government  and  to  Mr.  Forster's  resignation 
of  his  office.  In  1885,  when  the  Conservatives 
again  came  into  power  and  formed  a  govern- 
ment, Balfour  was  appointed  President  of  the 
Local  Government  Board  and  afterwards  be- 
came Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 

—  in  other  words,  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland. 
He  had  to  attempt  a  difficult,  or  rather,  it  should 
be  said,  an  impossible  task,  and  he  got  through 
it  about  as  well  as,  or  as  badly  as,  any  other 
man  could  have  done  whose  appointed  mission 
was  to  govern  Ireland  on  Tory  principles  for 
the  interests  of  the  landlords  and  by  the  policy 
of  coercion. 

Balfour,  it  should  be  said,  was  never,  even 
at  that  time,  actually  unpopular  with  the  Irish 
National  party.  We  all  understood  quite  well 
that  his  own  heart  did  not  go  with  the  sort  of 
administrative  work  which  was  put  upon  him ; 
his  manners  were  always  courteous,  agree- 
able, and  graceful ;  he  had  a  keen,  quiet  sense 
of  humor,  was  on  good  terms  personally  with 
the  leading  Irish  members,  and  never  showed 
any  inclination  to  make  himself  needlessly  or 
wantonly  offensive  to  his  opponents.  He  was 
always  readily  accessible  to  any  political  oppo- 
nent who  had  any  suggestion  to  make,  and  his 
term  of  office  as  Chief  Secretary,  although  of 
necessity  quite  unsuccessful  for  any  practical 
good,  left  no  memories  of  rancor  behind  it  in 
the  minds  of  those  whom  he  had  to  oppose  and 
to  confront.  More  lately  he  became  First  Lord 
of  the  Treasury  and  Leader  of  the  House  of 

9 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

Commons,  and   the    remainder   of   his  public 
career  is  too  well  known  to  call  for  any  detailed 
description  here.     My  object  in  this  article  is 
rather  to  give  a  living  picture  of  the  man  him- 
self as  we  all  saw  him  in  public  life  than  to 
record  in  historical  detail  the  successive  steps 
by  which  he  ascended  to  his  present  high  posi- 
tion, or  rather,  it  should  be  said,  of  the  succes- 
sive events  which  brought  that  place  within  his 
reach  and  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  accept 
it.     For  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that,  so  far  as 
outer  observers  could  judge,  Mr.  Balfour  never 
made  his  career  a  struggle  for  high  positions. 
So  clever  and  gifted  a  man  must  naturally  have 
had  some  ambition  in  the  public  field  to  which 
he  had  devoted  so  absolutely  his  time  and  his 
talents.     But  he  seemed,  so  far  as  one  could 
judge,  to  have  in  him  none  of  the  self-seeking 
qualities  which  are  commonly  seen  in  the  man 
whose  purpose  is  to  make  his  parliamentary 
work  the  means  of  arriving  at  the  highest  post 
in  the  government  of  the  State.     On  the  con- 
trary, his  whole  demeanor  seemed  to  be  rather 
that  of  one  who  is  devoting  himself  unwillingly 
to  a  career  not  quite  congenial.     He  always 
appeared  to  me  to  be  essentially  a  man  of  lit- 
erary, scholarly,  and  even  retiring  tastes,  who 

10 


ARTHUR  JAMES   BALFOUR 

has  a  task  forced  upon  him  which  he  does  not 
feel  quite  free  to  dechne,  and  who  therefore 
strives  to  make  the  best  of  a  career  which  he 
has  not  chosen,  but  from  which  he  does  not 
feel  at  liberty  to  turn  away.  Most  men  who 
have  attained  the  same  political  position  give 
one  the  idea  that  they  feel  a  positive  delight 
in  parliamentary  life  and  warfare,  and  that  na- 
ture must  have  designed  them  for  that  particular 
field  and  for  none  other.  The  joy  in  the  strife 
which  men  like  Palmerston,  like  Disraeli,  and 
like  Gladstone  evidently  felt  never  showed  itself 
in  the  demeanor  of  Arthur  Balfour.  There  was 
always  something  in  his  manner  which  spoke 
of  a  shy  and  shrinking  disposition,  and  he  never 
appeared  to  enter  into  debate  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  debating.  He  gave  the  idea  of  one 
who  would  much  rather  not  make  a  speech 
were  he  altogether  free  to  please  himself  in  the 
matter,  and  as  if  he  were  only  constraining 
himself  to  undertake  a  duty  which  most  of 
those  around  him  were  but  too  glad  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  attempting. 

There  are  instances,  no  doubt,  of  men  gifted 
with  an  absolute  genius  for  eloquent  speech 
who  have  had  no  natural  inclination  for  debate 
and  would  rather  have  been  free  from  any  ne- 

II 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

cessity  for  entering  into  the  war  of  words.  I 
have  heard  John  Bright  say  that  he  would 
never  make  a  speech  if  he  did  not  feel  it  a  duty 
imposed  upon  him,  and  that  he  would  never 
enter  the  House  of  Commons  if  he  felt  free  to 
keep  away  from  its  debates.  Yet  Bright  was  a 
born  orator  and  was,  on  the  whole,  I  think,  the 
greatest  public  and  parliamentary  orator  I  have 
ever  heard  in  England,  not  excluding  even 
Gladstone  himself.  Bright  had  all  the  physi- 
cal qualities  of  the  orator.  He  had  a  command- 
ing presence  and  a  voice  of  the  most  marvel- 
ous intonation,  capable  of  expressing  in  musical 
sound  every  emotion  which  lends  itself  to  elo- 
quence —  the  impassioned,  the  indignant,  the 
pathetic,  the  appealing,  and  the  humorous. 
Then  I  can  recall  an  instance  of  another  man, 
not,  indeed,  endowed  with  Bright's  superb  ora- 
torical gifts,  but  who  had  to  spend  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  since  he  attained  the  age  of 
manhood  in  the  making  of  speeches  within  and 
outside  the  House  of  Commons.  I  am  think- 
ing now  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell.  I  know 
well  that  Parnell  would  never  have  made  a 
speech  if  he  could  have  avoided  the  task,  and 
that  he  even  felt  a  nervous  dislike  to  the  mere 
putting  of  a  question  in  the  House.     But  no 

12 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 

one  would  have  known  from  Bright's  manner 
when  he  took  part  in  a  great  debate  that  he 
was  not  obeying  in  congenial  mood  the  full 
instinct  and  inclination  of  a  born  orator.  Nor 
would  a  stranger  have  guessed  from  Parnell's 
clear,  self-possessed,  and  precise  style  of  speak- 
ing that  he  was  putting  a  severe  constraint 
upon  himself  when  he  made  up  his  mind  to 
engage  in  parliamentary  debate.  There  is  some- 
thing in  Arthur  Balfour's  manner  as  a  speaker 
which  occasionally  reminds  me  of  Parnell  and 
his  style.  The  two  men  had  the  same  quiet, 
easy,  and  unconcerned  fashion  of  utterance, 
always  choosing  the  most  appropriate  word  and 
finding  it  without  apparent  difficulty;  each  man 
seemed,  as  I  have  already  said  of  Balfour,  to  be 
thinking  aloud  rather  than  trying  to  convince 
the  listeners;  each  man  spoke  as  if  resolved 
not  to  waste  any  words  or  to  indulge  in  any 
appeal  to  the  mere  emotions  of  the  audience. 
But  the  natural  reluctance  to  take  any  part  in 
debate  was  always  more  conspicuous  in  the 
manner  of  Balfour  than  even  in  that  of  Parnell. 
Balfour  is  a  man  of  many  and  varied  tastes 
and  pursuits.  He  is  an  advocate  of  athleti- 
cism and  is  especially  distinguished  for  his  de- 
votion to  the  game  of  golf.     He  obtained  at  one 

13 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

time  a  certain  reputation  in  London  society 
because  of  the  interest  he  took  in  some  pecul- 
iar phases  of  fanciful  intellectual  inventiveness. 
He  was  for  a  while  a  leading  member,  if  not 
the  actual  inventor,  of  a  certain  order  of  psy- 
chical research  whose  members  were  described 
as  The  Souls.  More  than  one  novelist  of  the 
day  made  picturesque  use  of  this  singular  order 
and  enlivened  the  pages  of  fiction  by  fancy  por- 
traits of  its  leading  members.  Such  facts  as 
these  did  much  to  prevent  Balfour  from  being 
associated  in  the  public  mind  with  only  the  rival- 
ries of  political  parties  and  the  incidents  of  par- 
liamentary warfare.  One  sometimes  came  into 
social  circles  where  Balfour  was  regarded  chiefly 
as  the  man  of  literary  tastes  and  somewhat 
eccentric  intellectual  developments.  All  this 
cast  a  peculiar  reflection  over  his  career  as  a 
politician  and  filled  many  observers  with  the 
idea  that  he  was  only  playing  at  parliamentary 
life,  and  that  his  other  occupations  were  the 
genuine  realities  for  him.  Even  to  this  day 
there  are  some  who  persist  in  believing  that 
Balfour,  despite  his  prolonged  and  unvarying 
attention  to  his  parliamentary  duties,  has  never 
given  his  heart  to  the  prosaic  and  practical 
work  of  administrative  office  and  the  business 

14 


ARTHUR  JAMES    BALFOUR 

of  maintaining  his  political  party.  Yet  it  has 
always  had  to  be  acknowledged  that  no  man 
attended  more  carefully  and  more  closely  to 
such  work  when  he  had  to  do  it,  and  that  the 
most  devoted  worshiper  of  political  success 
could  not  have  been  more  regular  and  constant 
in  his  attention  to  the  business  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  People  said  that  he  was  lazy  by 
nature,  that  he  loved  long  hours  of  sleep  and 
of  general  rest,  and  that  he  detested  the  me- 
thodical and  mechanical  routine  of  official  work. 
But  I  have  not  known  any  Minister  of  State 
who  was  more  easy  of  approach  and  more  ready 
to  enter  into  the  driest  details  of  departmental 
business  than  Arthur  Balfour.  I  may  say,  too, 
that,  whenever  appeal  was  made  to  him  to  for- 
ward any  good  work  or  to  do  any  act  of  kind- 
ness, he  was  always  to  be  found  at  his  post  and 
was  ever  ready  to  lend  a  helping  hand  if  he 
could. 

I  remember  one  instance  of  this  kind  which 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  mentioning,  although 
I  am  quite  sure  Mr.  Balfour  had  little  inclina- 
tion for  its  obtaining  publicity.  Not  very 
many  years  ago  it  was  brought  to  my  know- 
ledge that  an  English  literary  woman  who  had 
won  much  and  deserved  distinction  as  a  novel- 

15 


BRITISH  POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

writer  had  been  for  some  time  sinking  into  ill 
health,  had  been  therefore  prevented  from  going 
on  with  her  work,  and  had  in  the  mean  time 
been  perplexed  by  worldly  difficulties  and  em- 
barrassments which  interfered  sadly  with  her 
prospects  and  made  her  a  subject  of  well-merited 
sympathy.  Some  friends  of  the  authoress  were 
naturally  anxious,  if  possible,  to  give  her  a  help- 
ing hand,  and  the  idea  occurred  to  them  that 
she  would  be  a  most  fitting  recipient  of  assist- 
ance to  be  bestowed  by  a  department  of  the 
State.  One  of  her  friends,  himself  a  distin- 
guished novelist,  who  happened  to  be  also  a 
friend  of  mine,  spoke  to  me  with  this  object, 
assuming  that,  as  an  old  parliamentary  hand, 
I  knew  more  than  most  writers  of  books  would 
be  likely  to  know  about  the  manner  in  which 
such  help  might  be  obtained.  There  is  in  Eng- 
land a  fund  —  a  very  small  fund,  truly  —  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Government  for  the  help  of  de- 
serving authors  who  happen  to  be  in  distress. 
This  fund  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  First  Lord 
of  the  Treasury,  the  office  which  was  then,  as 
now,  held  by  Arthur  Balfour.  I  was  still  at 
that  time  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  my  friend  suggested  that,  as  I  knew  some- 
thing about  the  whole  business,  I  might  be  a 

i6 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 

suitable  person  to  represent  the  case  to  the 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  make  appeal 
for  his  assistance.  My  friend's  belief  was  that 
the  application  might  come  with  more  effect 
from  one  who  had  been  for  a  long  time  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  and  whose  name  would  there- 
fore be  known  to  the  First  Lord  of  the  Trea- 
sury, than  from  a  literary  man  who  had  nothing 
to  do  with  parliamentary  life.  Nothing  could 
give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  become  the 
medium  through  which  the  appeal  might  be 
brought  under  the  notice  of  the  First  Lord,  but 
I  felt  some  difficulty  and  doubt  because  of  the 
conditions  of  the  time.  England  was  then  in 
the  most  distracting  period  of  the  South  African 
war.  We  were  hearing  every  day  of  fresh  mis- 
haps and  disasters  in  the  campaign.  Arthur 
Balfour  was  Leader  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  had  to  deal  every  day  with  questions, 
with  demands  for  explanation,  with  arguments 
and  debates  turning  on  the  events  of  the  war. 
It  seemed  to  me  to  be  rather  a  venturesome 
enterprise  to  attempt  to  gain  the  attention  of  a 
minister  thus  perplexingly  occupied  for  a  matter 
of  merely  private  and  individual  concern.  I 
feared  that  an  overworked  statesman  might 
feel  naturally  inclined  to  remit  the  subject  to 

17 


BRITISH    POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

the  care  of  some  mere  official,  and  that  time 
might  thus  be  lost  and  the  needed  helping  hand 
be  long  delayed.  I  undertook  the  task,  how- 
ever, and  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Balfour  at  once.  I 
received  the  very  next  day  a  reply  written  in 
Mr.  Balfour's  own  hand,  expressing  his  cordial 
willingness  to  consider  the  subject,  his  sym- 
pathy with  the  purpose  of  the  appeal,  and  his 
hope  that  some  help  might  be  given  to  the  dis- 
tressed novelist.  Mr.  Balfour  promptly  took 
the  matter  in  hand,  and  the  result  was  that  a 
grant  was  made  from  the  State  fund  to  secure 
the  novelist  against  any  actual  distress.  Now, 
I  do  not  want  to  make  too  much  of  this  act  of 
ready  kindness  done  by  Mr.  Balfour.  The 
appeal  was  made  for  a  most  deserving  object ; 
the  fund  from  which  help  was  to  be  given  was 
entirely  at  Mr.  Balfour's  disposal;  and  it  is 
probable  that  any  other  First  Lord  in  the  same 
circumstances  would  have  come  to  the  same 
decision.  But  how  easy  it  would  have  been 
for  Mr.  Balfour  to  put  the  whole  matter  into 
the  hands  of  some  subordinate,  and  not  to  add 
a  new  trouble  to  his  own  intensely  busy  life  at 
such  an  exciting  crisis  by  entering  into  the 
close  consideration  of  a  mere  question  of  State 
beneficence !     I  certainly  should  not  have  been 


ARTHUR   JAMES    BALFOUR 

surprised  if  I  had  not  received  an  answer  to 
my  letter  for  several  days  after  I  had  sent  it, 
and  if  even  then  it  had  come  from  some  sub- 
ordinate in  the  Government  department.  But 
in  the  midst  of  all  his  incessant  and  distracting 
occupations  at  a  most  exciting  period  of  public 
business  Mr.  Balfour  found  time  to  consider 
the  question  himself,  to  reply  with  his  own 
hand,  and  to  see  that  the  desired  help  was 
promptly  accorded.  I  must  say  that  I  think 
this  short  passage  of  personal  history  speaks 
highly  for  the  kindly  nature  and  the  sympa- 
thetic promptitude  of  Arthur  Balfour. 

For  a  long  time  there  had  been  much  specu- 
lation in  these  countries  concerning  the  prob- 
able successor  to  Lord  Salisbury,  whenever 
Lord  Salisbury  should  make  up  his  mind  to 
resign  the  position  of  Prime  Minister.  We  all 
knew  that  that  resignation  was  sure  to  come 
soon,  although  very  few  of  us  had  any  idea  that 
it  was  likely  to  come  quite  so  soon.  The 
general  opinion  was  that  the  country  would  not 
be  expected,  for  some  time  at  least,  to  put  up 
again  with  a  Prime  Minister  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  If,  therefore,  the  new  Prime  Minister 
had  to  be  found  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
there  seemed  to  be  only  a  choice  between  two 

19 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

men,  Arthur  Balfour  and  Joseph  Chamberlain. 
It  would  be  hard  to  find  two  men  in  the  House 
of  Commons  more  unlike  each  other  in  char- 
acteristic qualities  and  in  training  than  these 
two.  They  are  both  endowed  with  remarkable 
capacity  for  political  life  and  for  parliamentary 
debate,  *'  but  there,"  as  Byron  says  concerning 
two  of  whom  one  was  a  Joseph,  "  I  doubt  all 
likeness  ends  between  the  pair."  Balfour  is  an 
aristocrat  of  aristocrats ;  Chamberlain  is  essen- 
tially a  m.an  of  the  British  middle  class  —  even 
what  is  generally  called  the  lower  middle  class. 
Balfour  has  gone  through  all  the  regular  course 
of  university  education;  Chamberlain  was  for  a 
short  time  at  University  College  School  in  Lon- 
don, a  popular  institution  of  modern  origin 
which  does  most  valuable  educational  work,  but 
is  not  largely  patronized  by  the  classes  who 
claim  aristocratic  position.  Balfour  is  a  con- 
stant reader  and  student  of  many  literatures 
and  languages  ;  "  Mr.  Chamberlain,"  according 
to  a  leading  article  in  a  London  daily  newspaper, 
"  to  put  it  mildly,  is  not  a  bookworm."  Balfour 
loves  open-air  sports  and  is  a  votary  of  athleti- 
cism; Chamberlain  never  takes  any  exercise,  even 
walking  exercise,  when  he  can  possibly  avoid 
the  trouble.     Balfour  is  an  aesthetic  lover  of  all 

20 


ARTHUR  JAMES   BALFOUR 

the  arts;  Chamberlain  has  never,  so  far  as  I 
know,  given  the  sHghtest  indication  of  interest 
in  any  artistic  subject.  Balfour  is  by  nature  a 
modest  and  retiring  man;  Chamberlain  is  al- 
ways "  Pushful  Joe."  The  stamp  and  character 
of  a  successful  municipal  politician  are  always 
evident  in  Chamberlain,  while  Balfour  seems  to 
be  above  all  other  things  the  university  scholar 
and  member  of  high  society.  I  suppose  it 
must  have  been  a  profound  disappointment  to 
Chamberlain  that  he  was  not  offered  the  place 
of  Prime  Minister,  but  it  would  be  hardly  fair 
to  expect  that  such  a  place  would  not  be  offered 
to  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  Leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  even  if  that  First  Lord 
did  not  happen  to  be  a  nephew  of  the  retiring 
Prime  Minister. 

It  would  be  idle  just  now  to  enter  into  any 
speculation  as  to  whether  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour 
will  long  continue  to  hold  the  ofHce.  If  he 
should  make  up  his  mind,  as  was  at  one  time 
thought  possible  by  many  observers,  to  accept 
a  peerage  and  become  Prime  Minister  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  such  a  step  would  undoubtedly 
be  a  means  of  pacifying  the  partisans  of  Cham- 
berlain, for  Chamberlain  would  then  become, 
almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  leader  of  the 

21 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

Conservative  government  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  this  elevation  might  well  satisfy  his 
ambition  and  give  his  pushful  energy  work 
enough  to  do.  But  the  country  has  of  late  be- 
come less  and  less  satisfied  with  the  practice 
of  having  a  Prime  Minister  removed  from  the 
centre  of  active  life  and  hidden  away  in  the 
enervating  atmosphere  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  friends  of  Mr.  Balfour  are  naturally  in- 
clined to  hope  and  believe  that  he  will  not  bury 
himself  in  such  a  living  tomb.  His  path  will 
in  any  case  be  perplexed  by  many  difficulties 
and  obstructions.  My  own  impression  is  that 
the  inevitable  reaction  is  destined  to  come  be- 
fore long.  The  next  general  election  may 
prove  that  the  country  at  large  is  tired  of  a 
Conservative  administration.  The  public  mind 
will  soon  get  over  the  feverish  excitement  cre- 
ated by  the  South  African  war,  and  people  will 
begin  to  remember  that  England  had  won 
battles  and  annexed  territory  before  there  ever 
was  a  Transvaal  Republic,  and  found  then,  as 
she  will  find  now,  that  successes  abroad  do  not 
relieve  her  from  the  necessity  of  managing 
successfully  her  business  at  home.  It  has  to  be 
borne  in  mind,  too,  that  the  House  of  Commons 
does  not  really  originate  anything  in  the  work 

22 


ARTHUR  JAMES   BALFOUR 

of  important  legislation.  The  best  business  of 
the  Liberal  party  begins  outside  the  House  of 
Commons  —  begins  with  the  people  and  with 
those  who  take  an  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
people  and  have  brains  and  foresight  enough  to 
find  out  how  it  can  be  most  thoroughly  pro- 
moted. All  great  reforms  have  their  origin 
outside  the  House  of  Commons  and  are  only 
taken  up  by  the  House  of  Commons  when  it  is 
felt  that  the  popular  demand  is  so  earnest  that 
it  must  receive  serious  consideration.  The 
country  will  soon  begin  to  realize  the  fact  that, 
shamefully  mismanaged  as  the  War  Depart- 
ment may  have  been  during  the  recent  cam- 
paigns, the  War  Department  is  not  by  any 
means  the  only  national  institution  which  needs 
the  strong  hand  of  reform.  The  spirited  foreign 
policy  has  had  its  innings,  and  the  condition  of 
the  people  at  home  must  have  its  turn  very 
soon.  The  Liberal  party  has  its  work  cut  out 
for  it,  and  where  there  is  the  work  to  be  done  a 
Liberal  party  will  be  found  to  do  it.  So  far  as 
I  can  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  I  am  encour- 
aged to  hope  that  a  great  opportunity  is  waiting 
for  the  Liberal  party,  and  I  cannot  see  the 
slightest  reason  to  doubt  that  a  Liberal  party 
will  be  found   ready  for  the  opportunity  and 

23 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

equal  to  it.  A  Tory  Prime  Minister  has,  in- 
deed, before  now  had  the  judgment  and  the 
energy  to  forestall  the  Liberal  party  in  the 
great  work  of  domestic  reform,  but  I  do  not 
believe  that  even  the  warmest  admirers  of  Mr. 
Balfour  imagine  that  he  is  quite  the  man  to 
undertake  such  an  enterprise.  Arthur  Balfour 
is,  according  to  my  judgment,  the  best  man  for 
the  place  to  be  found  in  the  Conservative  ranks 
at  present,  but  I  do  not  suppose  that  he  is 
destined  just  now  to  be  anything  more  than  a 
stop-gap.  I  admire  his  great  and  varied  abili- 
ties, I  recognize  his  brilliant  debating  powers, 
and  I  have  felt  the  charm  of  his  genial  and 
graceful  manners,  but  I  do  not  believe  him 
capable  of  maintaining  the  present  adminis- 
tration against  the  rising  force  of  a  Liberal 
reaction. 


24 


LORD   SALISBURY 


From  a  painting  by  Hubert  voTi  Ilerkomor 

LORD   SALISKURY 


LORD   SALISBURY 

The  retirement  of  Lord  Salisbury  from  the 
position  of  Prime  Minister  and  the  leadership 
of  the  Conservative  Government  withdraws  into 
comparative  obscurity  the  most  interesting  and 
even  picturesque  figure  in  the  English  Parlia- 
mentary life  of  the  present  day.  Even  the  most 
uncompromising  opponents  of  the  Prime  Min- 
ister and  of  his  political  party  felt  a  sincere 
respect  for  the  character,  the  intellect,  and  the 
bearing  of  the  man  himself.  Every  one  gave 
Lord  Salisbury  full  credit  for  absolute  sincerity 
of  purpose,  for  superiority  to  any  personal  am- 
bitions or  mere  self-seeking,  for  an  almost 
contemptuous  disregard  of  State  honors  and 
political  fame. 

Yet  it  was  not  that  Lord  Salisbury  was  habit- 
ually careful  and  measured  in  his  speech,  that 
he  was  never  hurried  into  rash  utterances,  that 
he  was  guided  by  any  particular  anxiety  to  avoid 
offending  the  susceptibilities  of  others,  or,  in- 
deed, that,  as  a  rule,  he  preferred  to  use  sooth- 

27 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

ing  words  in  political  controversy.  He  has,  on 
the  contrary,  a  marvelous  gift  of  sarcasm  and 
of  satirical  phrase-making,  and  he  was  only  too 
ready  to  indulge  occasionally  this  peculiar  ca- 
pacity at  the  expense  of  political  friend  as  well 
as  of  political  foe.  In  his  early  days  of  public 
life,  when  he  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  as 
a  nominal  follower  of  Mr.  Disraeli,  he  was  once 
described  in  debate  by  his  nominal  leader  as 
"  a  master  of  flouts  and  jeers."  On  another  oc- 
casion Disraeli  spoke  of  him,  although  not  in 
Parliamentary  debate,  as  a  young  man  whose 
head  was  on  fire.  In  later  days,  and  even  when 
he  had  held  high  administrative  office,  Lord 
Salisbury  often  indulged  in  sudden  outbursts  of 
contemptuous  humor  which  for  a  time  seemed 
likely  to  provoke  indignant  remonstrance  even 
from  his  own  followers.  One  illustration  of  this 
unlucky  tendency  towards  contemptuous  utter- 
ance may  be  found  in  his  famous  allusion  sev- 
eral years  ago  to  a  native  of  Hindustan,  who 
had  been  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  as  *'  a  black  man."  That  was  a  time 
when  every  English  public  man  recognized  the 
great  importance  of  indulging  in  no  expression 
which  might  seem  calculated  to  wound  the  sus- 
ceptibilities of  the  many  races  who  have  been 

28 


LORD   SALISBURY 

brought  under  the  rule  of  the  Imperial  system 
in  the  Indian  dominions  of  the  sovereign.  The 
member  of  Parliament  thus  scornfully  alluded 
to  was  no  more  a  black  man  than  Lord  Salis- 
bury himself.  He  was  one  of  the  Parsee  races 
chiefly  found  in  the  Bombay  regions,  almost 
European  in  the  color  of  their  skin,  and  he 
looked  more  like  a  German  scholar  than  a  na- 
tive of  any  sunburnt  land.  No  one  defended 
Lord  Salisbury's  rash  utterance,  but  many  peo- 
ple excused  it  on  the  ground  that  it  was  only 
Lord  Salisbury's  way;  that  he  never  meant  any 
harm,  but  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of 
saying  an  amusing  and  sarcastic  thing  when  it 
came  into  his  mind.  The  truth  is  that  Lord 
Salisbury's  odd  humor  is  a  peculiarity  without 
which  he  could  not  be  the  complete  Lord  Salis- 
bury, and  an  unlucky  expression  was  easily  for- 
given because  of  the  many  brilliant  flashes  of 
genuine  and  not  unfair  sarcasm  with  which 
he  was  accustomed  to  illumine  a  dull  debate. 
When  he  succeeded  to  his  father's  title,  and 
had,  therefore,  to  leave  the  House  of  Commons 
and  take  his  place  in  the  House  of  Lords,  every 
one  felt  that  the  representative  chamber  had 
lost  one  of  its  most  attractive  figures,  and  that 
the  hereditary  chamber  was  not  exactly  the  place 

29 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

in  which  such  a  man  could  find  his  happiest 
hunting-ground.  Yet  even  in  the  somber  and 
unimpressive  House  of  Lords,  Lord  SaHsbury 
was  able,  whenever  the  humor  took  him,  to 
brighten  the  debates  by  his  apt  illustrations 
and  his  witty  humor. 

Lord  Salisbury  resigns  his  position  as  Prime 
Minister  at  a  time  of  life  when,  according  to 
the  present  standards  of  age,  a  man  is  still  sup- 
posed to  have  long  years  of  good  work  before 
him.  Lord  Palmerston's  career  as  Prime  Min- 
ister was  cut  short  only  by  his  death,  an  event 
which  occurred  when  Palmerston  was  in  his 
eighty-first  year.  Gladstone  was  more  than  ten 
years  older  than  Lord  Salisbury  is  now  when 
he  voluntarily  gave  up  his  position  as  head  of 
a  Liberal  administration.  Lord  Beaconsfield's 
time  of  birth  is  somewhat  uncertain,  but  he 
must  have  been  some  seventy-seven  years  of 
age  and  had  lost  none  of  his  powers  as  a  de- 
bater when  his  brilliant  life  came  to  its  close. 
We  may  take  it  for  granted  that  Lord  Salis- 
bury had  been  for  a  long  time  growing  tired  of 
the  exalted  political  position  which  had  of  late 
become  uncongenial  with  his  habits  and  his 
frame  of  mind.  By  the  death  of  his  wife  he 
had  lost  the  most  loved  companion  of  his  home, 

30 


LORD   SALISBURY 

his  intellectual  tastes,  and  his  political  career. 
A  pair  more  thoroughly  devoted  to  each  other 
than  Lord  and  Lady  Salisbury  could  hardly 
have  been  found  even  in  the  pages  of  romance. 
The  whole  story  of  that  marriage  and  that  mar- 
ried life  would  have  supplied  a  touching  and  a 
telling  chapter  for  romance.  Early  in  his  pub- 
lic career  Lord  Salisbury  fell  in  love  with  a 
charming,  gifted,  and  devoted  woman,  whom  a 
happy  chance  had  brought  in  his  way.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  an  eminent  English  judge, 
the  late  Baron  Alderson ;  and  although  such  a 
wife  might  have  been  thought  a  suitable  match 
even  for  a  great  aristocrat,  it  appears  that  the 
Lord  Salisbury  of  that  time,  the  father  of  the 
late  Prime  Minister,  who  was  then  only  Lord 
Robert  Cecil,  did  not  approve  of  the  marriage, 
and  the  young  pair  had  to  take  their  own  way 
and  become  husband  and  wife  without  regard 
for  the  family  prejudices.  Lord  Robert  Cecil 
was  then  only  a  younger  brother  with  a  younger 
brother's  allowance  to  live  on,  and  the  newly 
wedded  pair  had  not  much  of  a  prospect  be- 
fore them,  in  the  conventional  sense  of  the 
words.  Lord  Robert  Cecil  accepted  the  situ- 
ation with  characteristic  courage  and  resolve. 
There  seemed  at  that  time  no  likelihood  of  his 

31 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

ever  succeeding  to  the  title  and  the  estates, 
for  his  elder  brother  was  living,  and  was,  of 
course,  heir  to  the  ancestral  title  and  property. 
Lord  Robert  Cecil  had  been  gifted  with  dis- 
tinct literary  capacity,  and  he  set  himself  down 
to  w^ork  as  a  writer  and  a  journalist.  He  be- 
came a  regular  contributor  to  the  "  Saturday 
Review,"  then  at  the  height  of  its  influence 
and  fame,  and  he  wrote  articles  for  some  of 
the  ponderous  quarterly  reviews  of  the  time, 
brightening  their  pages  by  his  animated  and 
forcible  style.  He  took  a  small  house  in  a 
modest  quarter  of  London,  where  artists  and 
poets  and  authors  of  all  kinds  usually  made  a 
home  then,  far  removed  from  West  End  fash- 
ion and  courtly  splendor,  and  there  he  lived  a 
happy  and  productive  life  for  many  years.  He 
had  obtained  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons 
as  a  member  of  the  Conservative  party,  but  he 
never  pledged  himself  to  support  every  policy 
and  every  measure  undertaken  by  the  Conser- 
vative leaders,  whether  they  happened  to  be  in 
or  out  of  ofHce.  Lord  Robert  always  acted  as 
an  independent  member,  although  he  adhered 
conscientiously  to  the  cardinal  principles  of  that 
Conservative  doctrine  which  was  his  political 
faith  throughout  his  life.     He  soon  won  for 

32 


LORD   SALISBURY 

himself  a  marked  distinction  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  was  always  a  brilliant  speaker, 
but  was  thoughtful  and  statesmanlike  as  well 
as  brilliant.  He  never  became  an  orator  in  the 
higher  sense  of  the  word.  He  never  attempted 
any  flights  of  exalted  eloquence.  His  speeches 
were  like  the  utterances  of  a  man  who  is  think- 
ing aloud  and  whose  principal  object  is  to  hold 
and  convince  his  listeners  by  the  sheer  force  of 
argument  set  forth  in  clear  and  telling  language. 
Many  of  his  happy  phrases  found  acceptance 
as  part  of  the  ordinary  language  of  political  and 
social  life  and  became  in  their  way  immortal. 
Up  to  the  present  day  men  are  continually 
quoting  happy  phrases  drawn  from  Lord  Robert 
Cecil's  early  speeches  without  remembering 
the  source  from  which  they  came.  ' 

Such  a  capacity  as  that  of  Lord  Robert  Cecil 
could  not  long  be  overlooked  by  the  leaders  of 
his  party,  and  it  soon  became  quite  clear  that 
he  must  be  invited  to  administrative  ofifice.  I 
ought  to  say  that,  after  Lord  Robert  had  com- 
pleted his  collegiate  studies  at  Oxford,  he  de- 
voted himself  for  a  considerable  time  to  an 
extensive  course  of  travel,  and  he  visited  Aus- 
tralasia, then  but  little  known  to  young  Eng- 
lishmen of  his  rank,  and  he  actually  did  much 

33 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

practical  work  as  a  digger  in  the  Australian 
gold  mines,  then  newly  discovered.  He  had 
always  a  deep  interest  in  foreign  affairs,  and 
it  was  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  his  subse- 
quent career  that  he  could  often  support  his 
arguments  on  questions  of  foreign  policy  by 
experience  drawn  from  a  personal  study  of  the 
countries  and  States  forming  successive  sub- 
jects of  debate.  Suddenly  his  worldly  prospects 
underwent  a  complete  change.  The  death  of 
his  elder  brother  made  him  heir  to  the  family 
title  and  the  great  estates.  He  became  Viscount 
Cranborne  in  succession  to  his  dead  brother. 
I  may  perhaps  explain,  for  the  benefit  of  some 
of  my  American  readers,  that  the  heir  to  a 
peerage  who  bears  what  is  called  a  courtesy 
title  has  still  a  right  to  sit,  if  elected,  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  is  sometimes  a  source 
of  wonder  and  puzzlement  to  foreign  visitors 
when  they  find  so  many  men  sitting  in  the 
House  of  Commons  who  actually  bear  titles 
which  would  make  it  seem  as  if  they  ought  to 
be  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  eldest  sons  of 
all  the  higher  order  of  peers  bear  such  a  title, 
but  it  carries  with  it  no  disqualification  for  a 
seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  if  the  bearer 
of  it  be  duly  elected  to  a  place  in  the  repre- 

34 


LORD   SALISBURY 

sentative  chamber.  When  the  bearer  of  the 
courtesy  title  succeeds  to  the  actual  title  be- 
longing to  the  house,  he  then,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  becomes  a  peer,  has  to  enter  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  would  no  longer  be  legally  eli- 
gible to  sit  in  the  representative  chamber.  Lord 
Palmerston's  presence  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  often  a  matter  of  wonder  to  foreign 
visitors,  for  in  all  the  days  to  which  my  mem- 
ory goes  back.  Lord  Palmerston  seemed  too 
old  a  man  to  have  a  father  alive  and  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  I  have  had  to  explain  the 
matter  to  many  a  stranger,  and  it  only  gives 
one  other  illustration  of  the  peculiarities  and 
anomalies  which  belong  to  our  Parliamentary 
system.  Palmerston's  was  not  a  courtesy  title ; 
the  noble  lord  was  a  peer  in  his  own  right; 
but  then  he  was  merely  an  Irish  peer,  and  only 
a  certain  number  of  Irish  peers  are  entitled  to 
sit  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  more  fortu- 
nate, for  so  I  must  describe  them,  of  the  Irish 
peers  not  thus  entitled  to  sit  in  the  hereditary 
chamber  are  free  to  seek  election  for  an  Enor- 

O 

lish  constituency  in  the  House  of  Commons 
and  to  obtain  it,  as  Lord  Palmerston  did.  Lord 
Viscount  Cranborne,  therefore,  continued  for  a 
time  to  hold  the  place  in  the  House  of  Com- 

35 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

mons  which  he  had  held  as  Lord  Robert  Cecil. 
An  1866  Lord  Cranborne  entered  office,  for  the 
first  time,  as  Secretary  of  State  for  India  during 
the  administration  of  Lord  Derby. 

The  year  following  brought  about  a  sort  of 
crisis  in  Lord  Cranborne's  political  career,  and 
probably  showed  the  general  public  of  Eng- 
land, for  the  first  time,  what  manner  of  man  he 
really  was.  Up  to  that  period  he  had  been 
regarded  by  most  persons,  even  among  those 
who  habitually  gave  attention  to  Parliamentary 
affairs,  as  a  brilliant,  independent,  and  some- 
what audacious  free-lance  whose  political  con- 
duct was  usually  directed  by  the  impulse  of  the 
moment,  and  who  made  no  pretensions  to  any 
fixed  and  ruling  principles.  That  was  the  year 
1867,  when  the  Conservative  Government  under 
Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli  took  it  into  their 
heads  to  try  the  novel  experiment,  for  a  Con- 
servative party,  of  introducing  a  Reform  Bill 
to  improve  and  expand  the  conditions  of  the 
Parliamentary  suffrage.  Disraeli  was  the  author 
of  this  new  scheme,  and  it  had  been  suggested 
to  him  by  Mr.  Gladstone's  failure  in  the  pre- 
vious year  with  his  measure  of  reform.  Glad- 
stone's reform  measure  did  not  go  far  enough 
to  satisfy  the  genuine  Radicals,  while  it  went 

36 


LORD   SALISBURY 

much  too  far  for  a  considerable  number  of 
doubtful  and  half-hearted  Liberals,  and  it  was 
strongly  opposed  by  the  whole  Tory  party.  As 
usually  happens  in  the  case  of  every  reform 
introduced  by  a  Liberal  administration,  a  seces- 
sion took  place  among  the  habitual  followers  of 
the  Government.  The  secession  in  this  case 
was  made  famous  by  the  name  which  Bright 
conferred  upon  it  as  the  "  Cave  of  Adullam  " 
party ;  and  by  the  co-operation  of  the  seceding 
section  with  the  Tory  Opposition,  the  measure 
was  defeated,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  went  out  of 
iiffice.  Disraeli  saw,  with  his  usual  sagacity, 
that  the  vast  mass  of  the  population  were  in 
favor  of  some  measure  of  reform,  and  when 
Lord  Derby  and  he  came  into  office  he  made 
up  his  mind  that,  as  the  thing  had  to  be  done, 
he  and  his  colleagues  might  as  well  have  the 
advantage  of  doing  it.  The  outlines  of  the 
measure  prepared  for  the  purpose  only  shaped 
a  very  vague  and  moderate  scheme  of  reform, 
but  Disraeli  was  quite  determined  to  accept 
any  manner  of  compromises  in  order  to  carry 
some  sort  of  scheme  and  to  keep  himself  and 
his  party  in  power.  But  then  arose  a  new  diffi- 
culty on  which,  with  all  his  sagacity,  he  had 
not  calculated.     Lord  Cranborne  for  the  first 

37 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

time  showed  that  he  was  a  man  of  clear  anu 
resolute  political  principle,  and  that  he  was  not 
willing  to  sacrifice  any  of  his  conscientious  con 
victions  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  his  place 
in  a  Government.     He  was  sincerely  opposed 
to  every  project  for  making  the  suffrage  popi' 
lar  and  for  admitting  the  mass  of  the  working 
men  of  the  country  to  any  share  in  its  goverr 
ment.     I   need  hardly  say  that  I  am  entireh 
opposed  to  Lord  Cranborne's  political  theorie:; 
but  I  am  none  the  less  willing  to  render  iuii 
justice  to  the  sincerity,  not  too  common  among 
rising  public  men,  which  refused  to  make  anv 
compromise  on  a  matter  of  political  principle. 
Lord  Cranborne  was  then  only  at  the  opening 
of  his  administrative  career,  and  he  must  have 
had  personal  ambition  enough   to  make  hir)i 
wish  for  a  continuance  of  office  in  a  powerful 
administration.     But  he  put  all  personal  con- 
siderations  resolutely  aside,  and   resigned  hi-} 
place  in  the  Government  rather  than  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  a  project  which  he  believed  to 
be  a  surrender  of  constitutional  principle  to  the 
demands  of  the  growing  democracy.    Lord  Car- 
narvon and  one  or  two  other  members  of  the 
administration  followed  his  lead  and  resigned 
their  places  in  the  Government.     I  need  not 

38 


LORD   SALISBURY 

enter  into  much  detail  as  to  the  progress  of  the 
Disraeli  reform  measure.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  Disraeli  obtained  the  support  of  many- 
Radicals  by  the  Liberal  amendments  which  he 
accepted,  and  the  result  was  that  a  Tory  Gov- 
ernment carried  to  success  a  scheme  of  reform 
which  practically  amounted  to  the  introduction 
of  household  suffrage.  Lord  Cranborne  and 
those  who  acted  with  him  held  firmly  to  their 
principles,  and  steadily  opposed  the  measure 
introduced  by  those  who  at  the  opening  of  the 
session  were  their  official  leaders  and  colleagues. 
I  am  convinced  that  even  the  most  advanced 
reformers  were  ready  to  give  a  due  meed  of 
praise  to  the  man  who  had  thus  made  it  evi- 
dent that  he  preferred  what  he  believed  to  be  a 
political  principle,  even  though  he  knew  it  to 
be  the  principle  of  a  losing  cause,  to  any  con- 
sideration of  personal  advancement. 

Some  of  us  felt  sure  that  we  had  then  learned 
for  the  first  time  what  manner  of  man  Lord 
Cranborne  really  was.  We  had  taken  him  for 
a  bold  and  brilliant  adventurer,  and  we  found 
and  were  ready  to  acknowledge  that  he  was  a 
man  of  deep,  sincere,  and  self-sacrificing  convic- 
tions. I  have  never  from  that  time  changed  my 
opinions  with  regard  to  Lord  Cranborne's  per- 

39 


BRITISH  POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

sonal  character.  His  career  interested  me  from 
the  first  moment  that  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
observing  it,  and  I  may  say  that  from  an  early 
period  of  my  manhood  I  had  much  opportunity 
of  studying  the  ways  and  the  figures  of  Parha- 
mentary  life.  But  until  Lord  Cranborne  had 
taken  this  resolute  position  on  the  reform  ques- 
tion, I  had  never  given  him  credit  for  any  depth  of 
political  convictions.  The  impression  I  formed 
of  him  up  to  that  time  was  that  he  was  merely 
a  younger  son  of  a  great  aristocratic  family,  who 
had  a  natural  aptitude  alike  for  literature  and  for 
politics,  and  that  he  was  following  in  Parliament 
the  guidance  of  his  own  personal  humors  and 
argumentative  impulses,  and  that  he  was  ready 
to  sacrifice  in  debate  not  only  his  friends  but 
his  party  for  the  sake  of  saying  a  clever  thing 
and  startling  his  audience  into  reluctant  admi- 
ration. \From  those  days  of  1867  I  knew  him 
to  be  what  all  the  world  now  knows  him  to  be, 
a  man  of  deep  and  sincere  convictions,  ever  fol- 
lowing the  light  of  what  he  believes  to  be  politi- 
cal wisdom  and  justice.  I  can  say  this  none 
the  less  readily  because  I  suppose  it  has  hardly 
ever  been  my  fortune  to  agree  with  any  of  Lord 
Salisbury's  utterances  on  questions  of  political 
importance.     1 

(  40 


LORD   SALISBURY 

In  1868  the  career  of  Lord  Cranborne  in  the 
House  of  Commons  came  to  an  end  by  the 
death  of  his  father.  He  succeeded  to  the  title 
of  Marquis  of  SaHsbury,  and  became,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
He  was  thus  withdrawn  while  still  a  compar- 
atively young  man  from  that  stirring  field  of 
splendid  debate  where  his  highest  qualities  as 
a  speaker  could  alone  have  found  their  fitting 
opportunity.  I  need  not  trace  out  his  subse- 
quent public  career  with  any  sequence  of  detail. 
We  all  know  how  from  that  time  to  this  he  has 
held  high  office,  has  come  to  hold  the  highest 
offices  in  the  State  whenever  his  political  party 
happened  to  be  in  power.  He  has  been  For- 
eign Secretary;  he  has  been  Prime  Minister  in 
three  Conservative  administrations.  For  a  time 
he  actually  combined  the  functions  of  Prime 
Minister  and  those  of  Foreign  Secretary.  He 
was  envoy  to  the  great  conference  at  Constan- 
tinople in  1876  and  1877,  and  he  took  part  in 
the  Congress  of  Berlin,  that  conference  which 
Lord  Beaconsfield  declared  brought  to  England 
peace  with  honor.  Everything  that  a  man 
could  have  to  gratify  his  ambition  Lord  Salis- 
bury has  had  since  the  day  when  he  succeeded 
to  his  father's  title  and  estates.     His  own  intel- 

41 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

lectual  force  and  his  political  capacity  must 
undoubtedly  have  made  a  way  for  him  to  Par- 
liamentary influence  and  success  even  if  he  had 
always  remained  Lord  Robert  Cecil,  and  his 
elder  brother  had  lived  to  succeed  to  the  title. 
But  from  the  moment  when  Lord  Robert  Cecil 
became  the  heir,  it  was  certain  that  his  party 
could  not  venture  to  overlook  him.  He  might 
have  made  eccentric  speeches,  he  might  have 
indulged  in  sarcastic  and  scornful  allusions  to 
his  political  leaders,  he  might  have  allowed  ob- 
trusive scruples  of  conscience  to  interfere  with 
the  interests  of  his  party,  but  none  the  less  it 
became  absolutely  necessary  that  the  Conserva- 
tive politicians  should  accept,  when  opportunity 
came,  the  leadership  of  the  Marquis  of  Salis- 
bury. "  Thou  hast  it  all "  —  the  words  which 
Banquo  applies  to  Macbeth  —  might  have  been 
said  of  Lord  Salisbury  when  he  became  for  the 
first  time  Prime  Minister. 

Lord  Salisbury  certainly  did  not  achieve  his 
position  by  any  of  the  arts,  even  the  less  cul- 
pable arts,  which  for  a  time  secured  to  Macbeth 
the  highest  reach  of  his  ambition.  Lord  Salis- 
bury's  leadership  came  to  him  and  was  not 
sought  by  him.  I  cannot  help  thinking,  how- 
ever, that,  after  he  had  once  attained  that  su- 

42 


LORD   SALISBURY 

preme  position  in  his  party,  the  remainder  of 
his  public  career  has  been  something  in  the 
nature  of  an  anticlimax.  Was  it  that  the  chill 
and  deadening  influence  of  the  House  of  Lords 
proved  too  depressing  for  the  energetic  and 
vivacious  spirit  which  had  won  celebrity  for 
Lord  Robert  Cecil  in  the  House  of  Commons  ? 
Was  it  that  Lord  Salisbury,  when  he  had  at- 
tained the  height  of  his  ambition,  became  a 
victim  to  that  mood  of  reaction  which  compels 
such  a  man  to  ask  himself  whether,  after  all, 
the  work  of  ascent  was  not  much  better  than 
the  attained  elevation  ?  Lord  Salisbury's  years 
of  high  office  coming  now  thus  suddenly  to  an 
end  give  to  me  at  least  the  melancholy  impres- 
sion of  an  unfulfilled  career.  The  influence  of 
the  Prime  Minister,  so  far  as  mere  outsiders 
can  judge  of  it,  has  always  been  exerted  in  for- 
eign affairs  for  the  promotion  of  peace.  Even 
the  late  war  in  South  Africa  is  not  understood 
to  have  been  in  any  sense  a  war  of  his  seeking. 
The  general  belief  is  that  the  policy  of  war  was 
pressed  upon  him  by  influences  which  at  the 
time  he  was  not  able  to  control  —  influences 
which  would  only  have  become  all  the  stronger 
if  he  had  refused  to  accept  the  responsibility 
of  Prime  Minister  and  had  left  it  to  others  to 

43 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

carry  on  the  work  of  government.  However 
this  may  be,  it  can  hardly  be  questioned  that 
of  late  years  Lord  Salisbury  had  become  that 
which  nobody  in  former  days  could  ever  sup- 
pose him  likely  to  become,  the  mere  figurehead 
of  an  administration.  Lord  Salisbury's  whole 
nature  seems  to  have  been  too  sincere,  too  free 
from  mere  theatrical  arts,  to  allow  him  to  play 
the  part  of  leader  where  he  had  no  heart  in  the 
work  of  leadership.  A  statesman  like  Disraeli 
might  have  disapproved  of  a  certain  policy  and 
done  his  best  to  reason  his  colleagues  out  of  it, 
but  nevertheless,  when  he  found  himself  likely 
to  be  overborne,  would  have  immersed  himself 
deliberately  in  all  the  new-born  zeal  of  the  con- 
vert and  would  have  behaved  thenceforward  as 
if  his  whole  soul  were  in  the  work  which  had 
been  put  upon  him  to  do.  Lord  Salisbury  is 
most  assuredly  not  a  man  of  this  order,  and  he 
never  would  or  could  put  on  an  enthusiasm 
which  he  did  not  feel  in  his  heart.  We  can  all 
remember  how,  at  the  very  zenith  of  British 
passion  against  China  during  the  recent  politi- 
cal convulsions  and  the  intervention  of  the 
foreign  allies,  Lord  Salisbury  astonished  and 
depressed  some  of  his  warmest  admirers  by  a 
speech  which  he  made  at  Exeter  Hall,  a  speech 

44 


LORD   SALISBURY 

which,  metaphorically  at  least,  threw  the  coldest 
of  cold  water  on  the  popular  British  ardor  for 
forcing  Western  civilization  on  the  Chinese 
people. 

Lord  Salisbury's  frame  of  mind  was  one  which 
could  never  allow  him  to  become  even  for  a 
moment  a  thorough  Jingo,  and  through  all  the 
later  years  of  his  power  he  held  the  office  of 
Prime  Minister  at  a  time  when  Jingoism  was 
the  order  of  the  day  among  the  outside  sup- 
porters of  the  Conservative  Government.  He 
never  had  a  fair  chance  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  his  intellectual  faculties  while  he  re- 
mained at  the  head  of  a  Conservative  adminis- 
tration. Under  happier  conditions  he  might 
have  been  a  great  Prime  Minister  and  a  leading 
force  in  political  movement,  but  his  intellect, 
his  tastes,  and  his  habits  of  life  did  not  allow 
him  to  pay  much  deference  to  the  prejudices 
and  passions  of  those  on  whom  he  was  com- 
pelled to  rely  for  support.  There  was  too  much 
in  him  of  the  thinker,  the  scholar,  and  the  recluse 
to  make  him  a  thoroughly  effective  leader  of 
the  party  who  had  to  acknowledge  his  com- 
mand. He  loved  reading,  he  loved  literature 
and  art,  and  he  took  no  delight  in  the  formal 
social  functions  which  are  in  our  days  an  im- 

45 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

portant  part  of  successful  political  administra- 
tion. He  could  not  be  "  hail-fellow-well-met " 
with  every  pushing  follower  who  made  it  a 
pride  to  be  on  terms  of  cqmpanionship  with  the 
leader  of  the  party.  I  have  often  heard  that 
he  had  a  singularly  bad  memory  for  faces,  and 
that  many  a  devoted  Tory  follower  found  his 
enthusiasm  chilled  every  now  and  then  by  the 
obvious  fact  that  the  Prime  Minister  did  not 
seem  to  remember  anything  about  the  identity 
of  his  obtrusive  admirer.  Much  the  same  thing 
has  been  said  over  and  over  again  about  Mr. 
Gladstone,  but  then  Gladstone  had  the  inborn 
genius  of  leadership,  threw  his  soul  into  every 
great  political  movement,  and  did  not  depend 
in  the  slightest  degree  on  his  faculty  for  appre- 
ciating and  conciliating  every  individual  fol- 
lower. Lord  Salisbury's  tastes  were  for  the  so- 
ciety of  his  close  personal  friends,  and  I  believe 
no  man  could  be  a  more  genial  host  in  the 
company  of  those  with  whom  he  loved  to  asso- 
ciate ;  but  he  had  no  interest  in  the  ordinary 
ways  of  society  and  made  no  effort  to  conciliate 
those  with  whom  he  found  himself  in  no  man- 
ner of  companionship.  He  did  not  even  take 
any  strong  interest  in  the  study  of  the  most 
remarkable  figures  in  the  political  world  around 

46 


LORD   SALISBURY 

him,  if  he  did  not  feel  drawn  into  sympathy 
with  their  ways  and  their  opinions.  On  one 
occasion,  when  a  report  had  got  about  in  the 
newspapers  that  Lord  Sahsbury  was  often  seen 
in  friendly  companionship  with  the  late  Mr. 
Parnell  in  the  smoking-room  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  Lord  Salisbury  publicly  stated  that 
he  had  never,  to  his  knowledge,  seen  Parnell, 
and  had  never  been  once  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons smoking-room. 

No  man  has  been  better  known,  so  far  as 
personal  appearance  was  concerned,  to  the  gen- 
eral English  public  than  Lord  Salisbury.  He 
has  been  as  well  known  as  Mr.  Gladstone  him- 
self, and  one  cannot  say  more  than  that.  He 
was  a  frequent  walker  in  St.  James's  Park  and 
other  places  of  common  resort  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Houses  of  Parliament.  Every  one 
knew  the  tall,  broad,  stooping  figure  with  the 
thick  head  of  hair,  the  bent  brows,  and  the 
careless,  shabby  costume.  No  statesman  of  his 
time  was  more  indifferent  than  Lord  Salisbury 
to  the  dictates  of  fashion  as  regarded  dress  and 
deportment.  He  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
worst-dressed  men  of  his  order  in  London.  In 
this  peculiarity  he  formed  a  remarkable  con- 
trast to  Lord  Beaconsfield,  who  down  to  the 

47 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

very  end  of  his  life  took  care  to  be  always 
dressed  according  to  the  most  recent  dictates 
of  fashion.  All  this  was  strictly  in  keeping 
with  Lord  Salisbury's  character  and  tempera- 
ment. The  world  had  to  take  him  as  he  was  — 
he  could  never  bring  himself  to  act  any  part  for 
the  sake  of  its  effect  upon  the  public.  My  own 
impression  is  that  when  he  was  removed  by  the 
decree  of  fate  into  the  House  of  Lords  and 
taken  away  from  the  active,  thrilling  life  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  felt  himself  excluded 
from  his  congenial  field  of  political  action  and 
had  but  little  interest  in  the  game  of  politics 
any  more.  ^  He  does  not  seem  destined  to  a 
place  in  the  foremost  rank  of  English  Prime 
Ministers,  even  of  English  Conservative  Prime 
Ministers.  But  his  is  beyond  all  question  a 
picturesque,  a  deeply  interesting,  and  even  a 
commanding  figure  in  English  political  history, 
and  the  world  will  have  reason  to  regret  if  his 
voluntary  retirement  from  the  position  of  Prime 
Minister  should  mean  also  his  retirement  from 
the  field  of  political  life. 


48 


LORD   ROSEBERY 


Photograph  copyright  tiy  I'.lhutt  .v  Fi  % 

THE    KARL   OF    ROSEEERV 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

Lord  Rosebery  was  for  a  prolonged  season 
the  man  in  English  political  life  upon  whom 
the  eyes  of  expectation  were  turned.  He  is  a 
younger  man  than  most  of  his  political  col- 
leagues and  rivals,  but  it  is  not  because  of  his 
comparative  youth  that  the  eyes  of  expectation 
were  and  still  are  turned  upon  him.  Not  one 
of  those  who  stand  in  the  front  ranks  of  Par- 
liamentary life  to-day  could  be  called  old,  as 
we  reckon  age  in  our  modern  estimate.  Palm- 
erston,  Gladstone,  and  Disraeli  won  their  high- 
est political  triumphs  after  they  had  passed 
the  age  which  Lord  Salisbury  and  Sir  Wil- 
liam Harcourt  have  now  reached ;  Mr.  Balfour 
is  still  regarded  in  politics  as  quite  a  young 
man,  and  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  has 
but  lately  been  elected  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Lord  Rose- 
bery has  already  held  the  highest  political 
offices.  He  has  been  Foreign  Secretary  and 
he  has  been   Prime   Minister.     He  has  been 

51 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

leader  of  the  Liberal  party.  No  other  public 
man  in  England  has  so  many  and  so  varied 
mental  gifts,  and  no  other  public  man  has  won 
success  in  so  many  distinct  fields.  We  live 
in  days  when,  for  the  time  at  least,  the  great 
political  orator  seems  to  have  passed  out  of 
existence.  The  last  great  English  orator  died 
at  Hawarden  a  few  short  years  ago.  We  have, 
however,  several  brilliant  and  powerful  Parlia- 
mentary debaters,  and  among  these  Lord  Rose- 
bery  stands  with  the  foremost,  if  he  is  not, 
indeed,  absolutely  the  foremost.  As  an  orator 
on  what  I  may  call  great  ceremonial  occasions 
he  is,  according  to  my  judgment,  the  very  fore- 
most we  now  have.  As  an  after-dinner  speaker 
—  and  after-dinner  speaking  counts  for  a  great 
deal  in  the  success  of  an  English  public  man  — 
he  has  never  had  an  equal  in  England  during 
my  time.  Then  Lord  Rosebery  has  delivered 
lectures  or  addresses  in  commemoration  of  great 
poets  and  philosophers  and  statesmen  which 
may  even  already  be  regarded  as  certain  of  an 
abiding  place  in  literature.  Lord  Rosebery  is 
a  literary  man,  an  author  as  well  as  a  states- 
man and  an  orator;  he  has  written  a  life  of 
Pitt  which  is  already  becoming  a  sort  of  clas- 
sic in  our  libraries.    There  are  profounder  stu- 

52 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

dents,  men  more  deeply  read,  than  he,  but  I 
doubt  if  there  are  many  men  living  who  have 
so  wide  an  acquaintance  with  general  litera- 
ture. He  is  a  lover  as  well  as  a  student  and  a 
connoisseur  of  art,  he  is  an  accomplished  yachts- 
man, has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  horses,  is 
famous  on  the  turf,  and  the  owner  of  a  horse 
that  twice  won  the  Derby.  The  legendary  fairy 
godmother  seems  to  have  showered  upon  him 
at  his  birth  all  her  richest  and  most  various 
gifts,  and  no  malign  and  jealous  sprite  appears 
to  have  come  in,  as  in  the  nursery  stories,  to 
spoil  any  of  the  gifts  by  a  counteracting  spell. 
He  was  born  of  great  family  and  born  to  high 
estate ;  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  house  of 
Rothschild  ;  he  has  a  lordly  home  near  Edin- 
burgh in  Scotland,  a  noble  house  in  the  finest 
West  End  square  of  London,  and  a  delightful 
residence  in  one  of  our  most  beautiful  English 
counties. 

Lord  Rosebery  is  one  of  the  most  charming 
talkers  whom  it  has  ever  been  my  good  for- 
tune to  meet.  He  has  a  keen  sense  of  humor, 
a  happy  art  of  light  and  delicate  satire,  and,  in 
private  conversation  as  well  as  in  Parliamentary 
debate,  he  has  a  singular  facility  for  the  inven- 
tion of  expressive  and  successful  phrases  which 

53 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

tell  their  whole  story  in  a  flash.  One  might 
well  be  inclined  to  ask  what  the  kindly  fates 
could  have  done  for  Lord  Rosebery  that  they 
have  left  undone.  Nevertheless,  the  truth  has 
to  be  told,  that  up  to  this  time  Lord  Rosebery 
has  not  accomplished  as  much  of  greatness  as 
most  of  us  confidently  expected  that  he  would 
achieve. 

I  have  been,  perhaps,  somewhat  too  hasty  in 
saying  that  no  counteracting  spell  had  in  any 
way  marred  the  influence  of  the  gifts  which  the 
fairies  had  so  lavishly  bestowed  on  Lord  Rose- 
bery. One  stroke  of  ill  fortune  —  ill  fortune, 
that  is,  for  an  English  political  leader  —  was 
certainly  directed  against  him.  Nature  must 
have  meant  him  to  be  a  successful  Prime  Min- 
ister, and  yet  fortune  denied  him  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  He  succeeded  to  his 
grandfather's  peerage  at  an  early  period  of  his 
life,  and  he  had  to  begin  his  political  career  as 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords.  He  there- 
fore missed  all  that  splendid  training  for  po- 
litical warfare  which  is  given  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  It  would  not,  perhaps,  be  quite 
easy  for  an  American  reader  to  understand 
how  little  the  House  of  Lords  counts  for  in  the 
education  of  fighting  statesmen. 

54 


LORD    ROSEBERY 

When  Charles  James  Fox  was  told  in  his  de- 
clining years  that  the  King,  as  a  mark  of  royal 
favor,  intended  to  make  him  a  peer  and  thus 
remove  him  from  the  House  of  Commons  into 
the  House  of  Lords,  he  struck  his  forehead  and 
exclaimed :  "  Good  Heaven  !  he  does  not  think 
it  has  come  to  that  with  me,  does  he  ? "  Fox 
had  had  all  the  training  that  his  genius  needed 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  he  was  not  con- 
demned to  pass  into  the  House  of  Lords.  Noth- 
ing but  the  inborn  consciousness  of  a  genius  for 
political  debate  can  stimulate  a  man  to  great 
effort  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Nothing  turns 
upon  a  debate  in  that  House.  If  a  majority  in 
the  House  of  Lords  were  to  pass  a  vote  of 
censure  three  times  a  week  on  the  existing 
Government,  that  Government  would  continue 
to  exist  just  as  if  nothing  had  happened,  and 
the  public  in  general  would  hardly  know  that 
the  Lords  had  been  expressing  any  opinion  on 
the  subject.  An  ordinary  sitting  of  the  House 
of  Lords  is  not  expected  to  last  for  more  than 
an  hour  or  so,  and  the  whole  assembly  often 
consists  of  some  half  a  dozen  peers.  Now  and 
again,  during  the  course  of  a  session,  there 
is  got  up  what  may  be  called  a  full-dress  de- 
bate when  some  great  question  is  disturbing  the 

55 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

country,  and  the  peers  think  that  they  ought 
to  put  on  the  appearance  of  being  deeply  con- 
cerned about  it,  and  some  noble  lord  who  has  a 
repute  for  wisdom  or  for  eloquence  gives  notice 
of  a  formal  motion,  and  then  there  is  a  length- 
ened discussion,  and  perhaps,  on  some  extraor- 
dinary occasion,  the  peers  may  sit  to  a  late  hour 
and  even  take  a  division.  But  on  such  remark- 
able occasions  the  peer  who  induces  the  House 
to  come  together  and  listen  to  his  oration  is 
almost  sure  to  be  one  who  has  had  his  training 
in  the  House  of  Commons  and  has  made  his 
fame  as  an  orator  there. 

Now,  I  cannot  but  regard  it  as  a  striking 
evidence  of  Lord  Rosebery's  inborn  fitness  to 
be  an  English  political  leader  that  he  should 
have  got  over  the  dreary  discouragement  of 
such  a  training-school,  and  should  have  prac- 
ticed the  art  of  political  oratory  under  con- 
ditions that  might  have  filled  Demosthenes 
himself  with  a  sense  of  the  futility  of  trying  to 
make  a  great  speech  where  nothing  whatever 
was  likely  to  come  of  it.  Lord  Rosebery,  how- 
ever, did  succeed  in  proving  to  the  House  of 
Lords  that  they  had  among  them  a  brilliant 
and  powerful  debater  who  had  qualified  himself 
for  success  without  any  help  from  the  school  in 

56 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

which  Lord  Brougham  and  the  brilHant  Lord 
Derby,  Lord  Cairns,  and  Lord  SaHsbury  had 
studied  and  mastered  the  art  of  Parliamentary 
eloquence. 

But,  indeed,  Lord  Rosebery  appears  to  have 
had  a  natural  inclination  to  seek  and  find  a 
training-school  for  his  abilities  in  places  and 
pursuits  that  might  have  seemed  very  much  out 
of  the  ordinary  British  aristocrat's  way.  Until 
a  comparatively  recent  period,  we  had  nothing 
that  could  be  called  a  really  decent  system  of 
municipal  government  in  the  greater  part  of 
London.  We  had,  of  course,  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  the  municipality  of  the  City  of  London, 
but  then  the  City  of  London  is  only  a  very 
small  patch  in  the  great  metropolis  that  holds 
more  than  five  millions  of  people.  London,  out- 
side the  City,  was  governed  by  the  old-fashioned 
parish  vestries,  and  to  some  extent  by  a  more 
recent  institution  which  was  called  the  Metro- 
politan Board  of  Works.  Now,  the  Metropoli- 
tan Board  of  Works  did  not  manage  its  affairs 
very  well.  There  were  disagreeable  rumors  and 
stories  about  contracts  and  jobbing  and  that 
sort  of  thing,  and  although  matters  were  never 
supposed  to  have  been  quite  so  bad  as  they 
were  in  New  York  during  days  which  I  can 

57 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

remember  well,  the  days  of  Boss  Tweed,  there 
was  enough  of  public  complaint  to  induce  Par- 
liament, at  the  instigation  of  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill,  to  abolish  the  Board  of  Works  alto- 
gether and  set  up  the  London  County  Council, 
a  thoroughly  representative  body  elected  by 
popular  suffrage  and  responsible  to  its  constit- 
uents and  the  public.  Lord  Rosebery  threw 
himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  promotion  of 
this  better  system  of  London  municipal  govern- 
ment. He  became  a  member  of  the  London 
County  Council,  was  elected  its  first  Chairman, 
and  later  on  was  re-elected  to  the  same  ofifice. 
Now,  I  think  it  would  be  hardly  possible  for  a 
man  of  Lord  Rosebery 's  rank  and  culture  and 
tastes  to  give  a  more  genuine  proof  of  patriotic 
public  spirit  than  he  did  when  he  threw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  the  work  of  a  municipal 
council. 

Up  to  that  time  the  business  of  a  London 
municipality  had  been  regarded  as  something 
belonging  entirely  to  the  middle  class  or  the 
lower  middle  class,  something  with  which  peers 
and  nobles  could  not  possibly  be  expected  to 
have  anything  to  do.  A  London  Alderman 
had  been  from  time  out  of  mind  a  sort  of  figure 
of  fun,  a  vulgar,  fussy  kind   of   person,  who 

58 


LORD    ROSEBERY 

bedizened  himself  in  gaudy  robes  on  festive 
occasions,  and  was  noted  for  his  love  of  the 
turtle  in  quite  a  different  sense  from  that  which 
Byron  gives  to  the  words.  Lord  Rosebery  set 
himself  steadily  to  the  work  of  London  munici- 
pal government  at  a  most  critical  period  in  its 
history;  his  example  was  followed  by  men  of 
rank  and  culture,  and  some  of  the  most  intellec- 
tual men  of  our  day  have  been  elected  Aldermen 
of  the  London  County  Council.  Only  think 
of  Frederic  Harrison,  the  celebrated  Positivist 
philosopher,  the  man  of  exquisite  culture  and 
refinement,  the  man  of  almost  fastidious  ways, 
the  scholar  and  the  writer,  becoming  an  Alder- 
man of  the  London  County  Council,  and  de- 
voting himself  to  the  duties  of  his  position ! 
Lord  Rosebery  undoubtedly  has  the  honor  of 
having  done  more  than  any  other  Englishman 
to  raise  the  municipal  government  of  London 
to  that  position  which  it  ought  to  have  in  the 
public  life  of  the  State. 

All  that  time  Lord  Rosebery  was  not  neglect- 
ing any  of  the  other  functions  and  occupations 
which  had  been  imposed  upon  him,  or  which  he 
had  voluntarily  taken  upon  himself.  He  held 
the  office  of  First  Commissioner  of  Works  in 
one  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  administrations,  an  office 

59 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

involving  the  care  of  all  the  State  buildings 
and  monuments  and  parks  of  the  metropolis. 
He  was  always  to  be  seen  at  the  private  views 
of  the  Royal  Academy  and  the  other  great 
picture  galleries  of  the  London  season.  He 
was  always  starting  some  new  movement  for 
the  improvement  of  the  breed  of  horses,  and, 
indeed,  there  is  a  certain  section  of  our  com- 
munity among  whom  Lord  Rosebery  is  re- 
garded, not  as  a  statesman,  or  a  London  County 
Councilor,  or  a  lover  of  literature,  but  simply 
and  altogether  as  a  patron  of  the  turf.  Mean- 
while we  were  hearing  of  him  every  now  and 
then  as  an  adventurous  yachtsman,  and  as  the 
orator  of  some  great  commemoration  day  when 
a  statue  was  unveiled  to  a  Burke  or  a  Burns. 

A  more  delightful  host  than  Lord  Rosebery 
it  would  not  be  possible  to  meet  or  even  to 
imagine.  I  have  had  the  honor  of  enjoying 
his  hospitality  at  Dalmeny  and  in  his  London 
home,  and  I  shall  only  say  that  those  were 
occasions  which  I  may  describe,  in  the  words 
Carlyle  employed  with  a  less  gladsome  signifi- 
cance, as  not  easily  to  be  forgotten  in  this 
world.  No  man  can  command  a  greater  vari- 
ety of  topics  of  conversation.  Politics,  travel, 
art,  letters,  the  life  of  great  cities,  the  growth 

60 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

of  commerce,  the  tendencies  of  civilizations,  the 
art  of  Hving,  the  philosophy  of  life,  the  way  to 
enjoy  life,  the  various  characteristics  of  foreign 
capitals  —  on  all  such  topics  Lord  Rosebery 
can  speak  with  the  clearness  of  one  who  knows 
his  subject  and  the  vivacity  of  one  who  can  put 
his  thoughts  into  the  most  expressive  words. 
I  suppose  there  must  be  some  eminent  authors 
with  whose  works  Lord  Rosebery  is  not  famil- 
iar, but  I  can  only  say  that  if  there  be  any 
such,  I  have  not  yet  discovered  who  they  are 
—  and  I  have  spent  a  good  deal  of  my  time  in 
reading.  I  have  seen  Lord  Rosebery  in  com- 
panies where  painters  and  sculptors  and  the 
writers  of  books  and  the  writers  of  plays  formed 
the  majority,  where  political  subjects  were  not 
touched  upon,  and  I  have  observed  that  Lord 
Rosebery  could  hold  his  own  with  each  prac- 
titioner of  art  on  the  artist's  special  subject. 
Lord  Rosebery  does  not  profess  to  be  a  book- 
worm or  a  great  scholar,  but  I  do  not  know 
any  man  better  acquainted  with  general  litera- 
ture. Such  a  man  must  surely  have  got  out 
of  life  all  the  best  that  it  has  to  give. 

Yet  it  is  certain  that  the  eyes  of  expectation 
are  still  turned  upon  Lord  Rosebery.  There 
is  a  general  conviction  that  he  has  something 

6i 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

yet  to  do  —  that,  in  fact,  he  has  not  yet  given 
his  measure.  He  has  been  Prime  Minister, 
and  he  has  been  leader  of  the  English  Liberal 
party,  but  in  neither  case  had  he  a  chance  of 
proving  his  strength.  When  Mr.  Gladstone 
made  up  his  mind  to  retire  finally  from  political 
life,  the  Queen  sent  for  Lord  Rosebery  and 
invited  him  to  form  an  administration.  Now, 
it  is  no  secret  that  at  th?t  time  there  were  men 
in  the  Liberal  party  whose  friends  and  admirers 
believed  that  their  length  of  service  gave  them 
a  precedence  of  claims  over  the  claims  of  Lord 
Rosebery.  There  were  those  who  thought  Sir 
William  Harcourt  had  won  for  himself  a  right 
to  be  chosen  as  the  successor  to  Mr.  Gladstone. 
On  the  other  side  —  for  there  was  grumbling 
on  both  sides  —  there  were  members  of  the 
Liberal  administration  who  positively  declined 
to  continue  in  office  if  Sir  William  Harcourt 
were  made  Prime  Minister.  These  men  did 
not  object  to  serve  under  Sir  William  Harcourt 
as  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  but  they 
objected  to  his  elevation  to  the  supreme  place 
,of  Prime  Minister.  Also,  there  were  Liberals 
of  great  influence,  who,  while  they  had  the  full- 
est confidence  in  Lord  Rosebery  and  were  not 
fanatically  devoted   to  Sir  William  Harcourt, 

62 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

objected  to  the  idea  of  having  a  Prime  Minister 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  a  Prime  Minister, 
too,  who  had  never  sat  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Now,  it  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  there 
was  some  practical  reason  for  this  objection. 
The  House  of  Commons  is  the  field  on  which 
political  battles  are  fought  and  won.  The  Com- 
mander-in-Chief ought  always  to  be  within  reach. 
A  whole  plan  of  campaign  may  have  to  be 
changed  at  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  notice.  It 
must  obviously  often  be  highly  inconvenient  to 
have  a  Prime  Minister  who  cannot  cross  the 
threshold  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  order 
to  get  into  instant  communication  with  the 
leading  men  of  his  own  party  who  are  fighting 
the  battle. 

At  all  events,  I  am  now  only  concerned  to 
say  that  these  doubts  and  difficulties  and  pri- 
vate disputations  did  arise,  and  that,  although 
Lord  Rosebery  did  accept  the  position  of  Prime 
Minister,  he  must  have  done  so  with  some 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  certain  of  his  col- 
leagues were  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  new 
conditions.  Lord  Rosebery  had  been  most  suc- 
cessful as  Foreign  Secretary  during  each  term 
when  he  held  the  office,  but  it  was  well  known, 
before   Mr.  Gladstone's  retirement,  that  there 

63 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

were  some  questions  of  foreign  policy  on  which 
the  old  leader  and  the  new  were  not  quite  of 
one  opinion.  In  English  political  life,  and  I 
suppose  in  the  political  life  of  every  self-gov- 
erning country,  there  are  seasons  of  inevitable 
action  and  reaction  which  must  be  observed 
and  felt,  although  they  cannot  always  be  ex- 
plained. 

To  a  distant  observer  the  policy  of  the  Lib- 
eral party  might  have  seemed  just  the  same 
after  Mr.  Gladstone  had  retired  from  politics 
as  it  was  when  he  was  in  the  front  of  political 
life.  But  just  as  the  policy  which  sustained 
him  in  his  early  days  as  Prime  Minister  was 
helped  by  the  reaction  which  had  set  in  against 
the  aggressive  policy  of  Lord  Palmerston,  so 
there  came,  with  the  close  of  Gladstone's  Par- 
liamentary career,  a  kind  of  reaction  against 
his  counsel  of  peace  and  moderation.  Lord 
Rosebery  was  believed  to  have  more  of  what  is 
called  the  Imperialist  spirit  in  him  than  had 
ever  guided  the  policy  of  his  great  leader.  Cer- 
tainly some  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  former  col- 
leagues in  the  House  of  Commons  appear  to 
have  thought  so,  and  there  began  to  be  signs 
of  a  growing  division  in  the  party.  Lord  Rose- 
bery's  Prime  Ministership  lasted   but  a  short 

64 


LORD    ROSEBERY 

time.  The  Government  sustained  one  or  two 
Parliamentary  discomfitures,  and  there  followed 
upon  these  a  positive  defeat  in  the  nature  of  a 
sort  of  vote  of  censure  carried  by  a  small  major- 
ity against  a  department  of  the  administration, 
on  the  ground  of  an  alleged  insufficiency  in 
some  of  the  supplies  of  ammunition  for  military 
service.  Many  a  Government  would  have  pro- 
fessed to  think  little  of  such  a  defeat,  would 
have  treated  it  only  as  a  mere  question  of  de- 
partmental detail,  and  would  have  gone  on  as 
if  nothing  had  happened.  But  Lord  Rosebery 
refused  to  take  things  so  coolly  and  so  care- 
lessly. Probably  he  was  growing  tired  of  his 
position  under  the  peculiar  circumstances.  Per- 
haps he  thought  the  most  manly  course  he  could 
take  was  to  give  the  constituencies  the  oppor- 
tunity of  saying  whether  they  were  satisfied  with 
his  administration  or  were  not.  The  Govern- 
ment appealed  to  the  country.  Parliament  was 
dissolved,  and  a  general  election  followed.  Then 
was  seen  the  full  force  of  the  reaction  which 
had  begun  to  set  in  against  the  Gladstone  policy 
of  peace,  moderation,  and  justice.  The  Con- 
servatives came  into  power  by  a  large  majority. 
Lord  Rosebery  was  now  merely  the  leader  of 
the  Liberal  party  in  Opposition.    Even  this  posi- 

65 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

tion  he  did  not  long  retain.  Some  of  the  most 
brilliant  speeches  he  ever  made  in  the  House 
of  Lords  were  made  during  this  time,  but  some- 
how people  began  to  think  that  his  heart  was 
not  in  the  leadership,  and  before  long  it  was 
made  known  to  the  public  that  he  had  ceased 
to  be  the  Liberal  Commander-in-Chief. 

Everybody,  of  course,  was  ready  with  an  ex- 
planation as  to  this  sudden  act,  and  perhaps,  as 
sometimes  happens  in  such  cases,  the  less  a 
man  really  knew  about  the  matter  the  more 
prompt  he  was  with  his  explanation.  Two  rea- 
sons, however,  were  given  by  observers  who 
appeared  likely  to  know  something  of  the  real 
facts.  One  was  that  Lord  Rosebery  did  not  see 
his  way  to  go  as  far  as  some  of  his  colleagues 
would  have  gone  in  arousing  the  country  to 
decided  action  against  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment because  of  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
allowing  its  Christian  subjects  to  be  treated. 
The  other  was  that  Lord  Rosebery  was  too 
Imperialistic  in  spirit  for  such  men  as  Sir  Wil- 
liam Harcourt  and  Mr.  John  Morley.  No  one 
could  impugn  Lord  Rosebery's  motives  in  either 
case.  He  might  well  have  thought  that  too 
forward  a  movement  against  Turkey  might  only 
bring  on  a  great  European  war  or  leave  Eng- 

66 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

land  isolated  to  carry  out  her  policy  at  her  own 
risk,  and  in  the  other  case  he  may  have  thought 
that  the  policy  bequeathed  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  tending  to  weaken  the  supremacy  of  Eng- 
land in  South  Africa. 

Lord  Rosebery  then  ceased  to  lead  a  Gov- 
ernment or  a  party,  and  became  for  the  time 
merely  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords.  I 
do  not  suppose  his  leisure  hung  very  heavy  on 
his  hands.  I  cannot  imagine  Lord  Rosebery 
finding  any  difficulty  in  passing  his  day.  The 
only  difficulty  I  should  think  such  a  man  must 
have  is  how  to  find  time  to  give  a  fair  chance 
to  all  the  pursuits  that  are  dear  to  him.  Lord 
Rosebery  spent  some  part  of  his  leisure  in 
yachting,  gave  his  usual  attention  to  the  turf, 
was  to  be  seen  at  picture  galleries,  and  occa- 
sionally addressed  great  public  meetings  on 
important  questions,  and  was  a  frequent  visitor 
to  the  House  of  Commons  during  each  session 
of  Parliament.  The  peers  have  a  space  in  the 
galleries  of  the  House  of  Commons  set  apart 
for  their  own  convenience,  and,  although  that 
space  can  hold  but  a  small  number  of  the  peers, 
yet  on  ordinary  nights  its  benches  are  seldom 
fully  occupied.  But  when  some  great  debate 
is  coming  on,  then  the  peers  make  a  rush  for 

67 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

the  gallery  space  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  those  who  do  not  arrive  in  time  to  get  a 
seat  have  to  wait  and  take  their  chance,  each 
in  his  turn,  of  any  vacancy  which  may  possibly 
occur.  I  am  not  a  great  admirer  of  the  House 
of  Lords  as  a  legislative  institution,  and  I  must 
say  that  it  has  sometimes  soothed  the  rancor  of 
my  jealous  feelings  as  a  humble  Commoner  to 
see  a  string  of  peers  extending  across  the  lobby 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  each  waiting  for  his 
chance  of  filling  some  sudden  vacancy  in  the 
peers'  gallery. 

Lord  Rosebery  continued  to  attend  the  de- 
bates when  he  had  ceased  to  be  Prime  Minis- 
ter and  leader  of  the  Liberal  party  just  as  he 
had  done  before.  His  fine,  clearly  cut,  closely 
shaven  face,  with  features  that  a  lady  novelist 
of  a  past  age  would  have  called  chiseled,  and 
eyes  lighted  with  an  animation  that  seemed  to 
have  perpetual  youth  in  it,  were  often  objects 
of  deep  interest  to  the  members  of  the  House, 
and  to  the  visitors  in  the  strangers'  galleries, 
and  no  doubt  in  the  ladies'  gallery  as  well.  The 
appearance  of  Lord  Rosebery  in  the  peers'  gal- 
lery was  sure  to  excite  some  talk  among  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
green  benches  below.     We  were  always  ready 

68 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

to  Indulge  in  expectation  and  conjecture  as  to 
what  Lord  Rosebery  was  likely  to  do  next,  for 
there  seemed  to  be  a  general  consent  of  opinion 
that  he  was  the  last  man  in  the  world  who  could 
sit  down  and  do  nothing.  But  what  was  there 
left  for  him  to  do  ?  He  had  held  various  ad- 
ministrative offices :  he  had  twice  been  Foreign 
Secretary ;  he  had  twice  been  Chairman  of  the 
London  County  Council ;  he  had  been  Prime 
Minister;  he  had  been  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party ;  he  had  been  President  of  all  manner  of 
great  institutions;  he  had  been  President  of 
the  Social  Science  Congress ;  he  had  been  Lord 
Rector  of  two  great  Universities ;  he  had  twice 
won  the  Derby.  What  was  there  left  for  him 
to  do  which  human  ambition  in  our  times  and 
in  the  dominions  of  Queen  Victoria  could  care 
to  accomplish?  Yet  the  general  impression 
seemed  to  be  that  Lord  Rosebery  had  not  yet 
done  his  appointed  work,  and  that  impression 
has  grown  deeper  and  stronger  with  recent 
events. 

Since  the  day  when  Lord  Rosebery  withdrew 
from  the  leadership  of  the  Liberal  party  the 
division  in  that  party  has  been  growing  wider 
and  deeper.  The  war  in  South  Africa  has 
done  much  to  broaden  the  gulf  of  separation. 

69 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

Lord  Rosebery  is  an  Imperialist,  Sir  William 
Harcourt  and  Mr.  John  Morley  are  not  Imperi- 
alists. The  opponents  of  Sir  William  Harcourt 
and  Mr.  Morley  call  them  Little  Englanders. 
The  opponents  of  Lord  Rosebery  and  those 
who  think  with  him  would  no  doubt  call  them 
Jingoes.  The  Imperialist,  or,  as  his  opponents 
prefer  to  call  him,  the  Jingo,  accepts  as  the 
ruling  principle  of  his  faith  the  right  and 
the  duty  of  England  to  spread  her  civilization 
and  her  supremacy  as  far  as  she  can  over  all 
those  parts  of  the  world  which  are  still  lying  in 
disorganization  and  in  darkness.  The  Little 
Englander,  as  his  opponents  delight  to  describe 
him,  believes  that  England's  noblest  work  for  a 
long  time  to  come  will  be  found  in  the  endea- 
vor to  spread  peace,  education,  and  happiness 
among  the  peoples  who  already  acknowledge 
her  supremacy.  I  am  not  going  to  enter  into 
any  argument  as  to  the  relative  claims  of  the 
two  political  schools.  It  has  been  said  that  a 
man  is  born  either  of  the  school  of  Aristotle  or 
of  the  school  of  Plato.  Perhaps  an  English- 
man of  modern  times  is  born  a  Jingo  or  a  Lit- 
tle Englander.  I  am  not  an  Englishman,  and 
therefore  am  not  called  upon  to  rank  myself  on 
either  side  of  the  controversy,  but  I  know  full 

70 


LORD   ROSEBERY 

well  which  way  my  instincts  and  sympathies 
would  lead  me  if  I  were  compelled  to  choose. 
I  could  not,  therefore,  account  myself  a  politi- 
cal follower  of  Lord  Rosebery ;  and,  indeed,  on 
the  one  great  question  which  concerned  me 
most  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
that  of  Irish  Home  Rule,  Lord  Rosebery  is 
not  quite  so  emphatic  as  I  should  wish  him  to 
be.  I  am  therefore  writing  the  eulogy,  not  of 
Lord  Rosebery  the  politician,  but  of  Lord  Rose- 
bery the  orator,  the  scholar,  the  man  of  letters 
and  arts  and  varied  culture,  the  man  who  has 
done  so  much  for  public  life  in  so  many  ways, 
the  helpful,  kindly,  generous  friend. 

The  common  impression  everywhere  is  that 
the  Conservative  Government,  as  it  is  now  con- 
stituted, cannot  last  very  long.  The  sands  of 
the  present  Parliament  are  running  out;  the 
next  general  election  may  be  postponed  for 
some  time  yet,  but  it  cannot  be  very  far  off. 
Are  the  Liberals  to  come  back  to  power  with 
Lord  Rosebery  at  their  head  ?  Can  the  Lib- 
eral party  become  so  thoroughly  reunited  again, 
Jingoes  and  Little  Englanders,  as  to  make  the 
formation  of  a  Liberal  Government  a  possible 
event  so  soon  ?  Or  is  it  possible,  as  many  ob- 
servers believe,  that  Lord  Rosebery  may  find 

n 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

himself  at  the  head  of  an  administration  com- 
posed of  Imperialist  Liberals  and  the  more  en- 
lightened and  generally  respected  members  of 
the  present  Government?  I  shall  not  venture 
upon  any  prediction,  having  seen  the  unex- 
pected too  often  happen  in  politics  to  have 
much  faith  in  political  prophecy.  I  note  it  as 
an  evidence  of  the  position  Lord  Rosebery  has 
won  for  himself  that,  although  he  became  Prime 
Minister  only  to  be  defeated,  and  leader  of  the 
Liberal  party  only  to  resign,  he  is  still  one  of 
the  public  men  in  England  about  whom  people 
are  asking  each  other  whether  the  time  for  him 
to  take  his  real  position  has  not  come  at  last. 


72 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 


J'hotoijiaph  copyright  by  Elliott  &  Fry 

JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

Mr.  Chamberlain  was  once  described  by  an 
unfriendly  critic  as  the  Rabagas  of  English 
political  life.  We  all  remember  Rabagas,  the 
hero  of  Sardou's  masterpiece  of  dramatic  satire, 
who  begins  his  public  career  and  wins  fame 
among  certain  classes  as  a  leveler  and  a  dema- 
gogue of  the  most  advanced  views,  an  unspar- 
ing enemy  of  the  aristocracy,  a  man  who  will 
make  no  terms  with  the  privileged  orders,  and 
will  bow  to  no  sovereign  but  the  sovereign  peo- 
ple. Now,  I  have  said  that  it  was  an  unfriendly 
critic  who  likened  Mr.  Chamberlain  to  Sardou's 
creation,  but  it  was  not  in  the  earlier  career 
of  the  real  or  the  imaginary  politician  that  the 
resemblance  was  especially  to  be  traced.  Ra- 
bagas is  brought  by  tempting  conditions  under 
the  influence  of  the  privileged  classes,  the  aris- 
tocracy, and  the  reigning  sovereign  of  the  small 
state  in  which  he  lives ;  and  his  leveling  and 
revolutionary  tendencies  melt  away  under  the 
genial  influence  of  his  new  associations.     He 

75 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

becomes,  before  long,  the  admirer  of  the  aris- 
tocracy and  the  Prime  Minister  of  the  Prince, 
and  is  ready  to  devote  all  his  energies  to  the 
defense  of  the  privileged  orders,  to  the  repres- 
sion of  the  vile  democracy,  and  the  silencing 
of  Radical  orators. 

In  this  contrast  between  the  earlier  and  the 
later  parts  of  the  political  career  the  malevo- 
lent critic,  no  doubt,  found  the  materials  for  his 
comparison  between  Rabagas  and  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain. For  there  can  be  no  denying  thafl^r. 
Chamberlain  began  his  public  life  as  an  elo- 
quent, an  unsparing,  and  apparently  a  convinced 
champion  of  democracy  against  the  aristocracy, 
the  privileged  orders,  and  the  Conservative 
party,  and  that  he  is  now  a  leading  member  of 
a  Conservative  Government,  and  goes  further 
than  most  of  his  colleagues  would  be  likely  to 
go  in  his  hostility  to  Radical  measures  and  t6 
Radical  men. 

Moreover,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  who  during  the 
earlier  part  of  his  public  life  belonged  to  the 
party  most  strenuously  opposed  to  all  unneces- 
sary wars,  and  especially  wars  which  had  annex- 
ation for  their  object,  has  been  the  chief  Minis- 
terial promoter  of  the  late  war  in  South  Africa, 
a  war  which  had  for  its  object  the  subjugation 

^6 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

of  two  independent  republics  in  order  to  bring 
them  under  the  Imperial  flag  of  England.  No 
one,  therefore,  could  have  been  much  surprised 
when  the  unfriendly  critic  fancied  that  he  could 
discover  at  least  a  certain  superficial  resem- 
blance between  the  career  of  Rabagas  and  the 
career  of  Mr.  Chamberlain. 

I  have  been  a  close  observer  of  much  of  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  public  life,  and  for  some  time  we 
were  thrown  a  good  deal  into  Parliamentary 
and  political  association.  He  came  into  the 
House  of  Commons  not  very  long  before  I  had 
the  honor  of  obtaining  a  seat  there,  and  his 
fame  had  preceded  him  so  far  that  his  entrance 
into  Parliament  was  looked  upon  by  everybody 
as  a  coming  event,  in  the  days  when  he  had 
not  yet  been  elected  to  represent  the  constitu- 
ency of  Birmingham.  Birmingham  was  at  that 
time  one  of  the  most  thoroughly  Radical  cities 
in  England.  John  Bright  once  said  that  as  the 
sea,  wherever  you  dip  a  cup  into  it,  will  be 
found  to  be  salt,  so  the  constituency  of  Bir- 
mingham, wherever  you  test  it,  will  be  found 
to  be  Radical.  Birmingham  could  claim  the 
merit  of  being  one  of  the  best  organized  muni- 
cipalities in  England.  Its  popular  educational 
institutions  were  excellent  ;   its  free   libraries 

n 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

might  have  won  the  admiration  of  a  citizen  of 
Boston,  Massachusetts ;  its  pohce  arrangements 
were  efficient ;  its  sanitation  might  well  have 
been  the  envy  of  London,  and  the  general  intel- 
ligence of  its  citizens  was  of  the  highest  order. 
Now,  it  was  in  this  enlightened,  progressive,  and 
capable  community  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  won 
his  first  fame.  He  is  not  a  Birmingham  man 
by  birth.  He  was,  I  believe,  born  and  brought 
up  on  the  south  side  of  London,  and  was  edu- 
cated at  University  College  School,  London. 
But  at  an  early  age  he  settled  in  Birmingham, 
and  became  a  member  of  his  father's  manufac- 
turing firm  there.  Very  soon  he  rose  to  great 
distinction  as  a  public  speaker  and  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  local  corporation,  and  three  times 
was  elected  chief  magistrate  of  Birmingham. 
We  began  soon  to  hear  a  great  deal  of  him 
in  London.  It  must  have  been  clear  to  any- 
body who  knew  anything  of  Birmingham  that 
a  man  could  not  have  risen  to  such  distinc- 
tion in  that  city  without  great  intelligence  and 
a  marked  capacity  for  public  life.  All  this  time 
he  was  known  as  a  Radical  of  the  Radicals. 
The  Liberal  party  in  London  began  to  look 
upon  him  as  a  coming  man,  and  as  a  coming 
man  who  was  certain  to  take  his  place,  and 

7^ 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

that  probably  a  leading  place,  in  the  advanced 
Radical  division  of  the  Liberals.  His  political 
speeches  showed  him  to  be  a  democrat  of  the 
leveling  order  —  a  democrat,  that  is  to  say,  of 
views  much  more  extreme  than  had  ever  been 
professed  by  John  Bright  or  Richard  Cobden. 
He  was  an  unsparing  assailant  of  the  aristo- 
cracy and  the  privileged  classes,  and,  indeed, 
went  so  far  in  his  Radicalism  that  the  Con- 
servatives in  general  regarded  him  as  a  down- 
right Republican. 

I  can  well  remember  the  sensation  which  his 
first  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  created 
among  the  ranks  of  the  Tories  after  his  election 
to  Parliament  as  one  of  the  representatives  of 
Birmingham.  The  good  Tories  made  no  effort 
to  conceal  their  astonishment  at  the  difference 
between  the  real  Chamberlain  as  they  saw  and 
heard  him  and  the  Chamberlain  of  their  earlier 
imaginings.  I  talked  with  many  of  them  at  the 
time,  and  was  made  acquainted  with  their  emo- 
tions. Judging  from  his  political  speeches,  they 
had  set  him  down  as  a  wild  Republican,  and 
they  expected  to  see  a  rough  and  shaggy  man, 
dressed  with  an  uncouth  disregard  for  the  ways 
of  society,  a  sort  of  Birmingham  Orson  who 
would  probably  scowl  fiercely  at  his  opponents 

79 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

in  the  House  and  would  deliver  his  opinions  in 
tones  of  thunder.  The  man  who  rose  to  address 
the  House  was  a  pale,  slender,  delicate  look- 
ing, and  closely  shaven  personage,  very  neatly 
dressed,  with  short  and  carefully  brushed  hair, 
and  wearing  a  dainty  eyeglass  constantly  fixed 
in  his  eye.  "  He  looks  like  a  ladies'  doctor," 
one  stout  Tory  murmured.  "  Seems  like  the 
model  of  a  head  clerk  at  a  West  End  draper's," 
observed  another.  Certainly  there  was  noth- 
ing of  the  Orson  about  this  well-dressed,  well- 
groomed  representative  of  the  Birmingham 
democracy.  Mr.  Chamberlain's  speech  made  a 
distinct  impression  on  the  House.  It  was  ad- 
mirably delivered,  in  quietly  modulated  tones, 
the  clear,  penetrating  voice  never  rising  to  the 
level  of  declamation,  but  never  failing  to  reach 
the  ear  of  every  listener.  The  political  opin- 
ions which  it  expressed  were  such  as  every  one 
might  have  expected  to  come  from  so  reso- 
lute a  democrat,  but  the  quiet,  self-possessed 
delivery  greatly  astonished  those  who  had  ex- 
pected to  see  and  hear  a  mob  orator.  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  position  in  the  House  was  as- 
sured after  that  first  speech.  Even  among  the 
Tories  everybody  felt  satisfied  that  the  new 
man  was  a  man  of  great  ability,  gifted  with  a 

80 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

remarkable  capacity  for  maintaining  his  views 
with  ingenious  and  plausible  argument,  a  man 
who  could  hold  his  own  in  debate  with  the 
best,  and  for  whom  the  clamors  of  a  host  of 
political  opponents  could  have  no  terrors. 

I  may  say  at  once  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  has, 
ever  since  that  time,  proved  himself  to  be  one 
of  the  ablest  debaters  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. He  is  not  and  never  could  be  an  orator 
in  the  higher  sense,  for  he  wants  altogether 
that  gift  of  imagination  necessary  to  the  com- 
position of  an  orator,  and  he  has  not  the  cul- 
ture and  the  command  of  ready  illustration 
which  sometimes  lift  men  who  are  not  born 
orators  above  the  mere  debater's  highest  level. 
But  he  has  unfailing  readiness,  a  wide  know- 
ledge of  public  affairs,  a  keen  eye  for  all  the 
weak  points  of  an  opponent's  case,  and  a  flow 
of  clear  and  easy  language  which  never  fails  to 
give  expression,  at  once  full  and  precise,  to  all 
that  is  in  his  mind.  He  was  soon  recognized, 
even  by  his  extreme  political  opponents,  as  one 
of  the  ablest  men  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  it  seemed  plain  to  every  one  that,  when 
the  chance  came  for  the  formation  of  a  Liberal 
Ministry,  the  country  then  being  in  the  hands 


8i 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

of  a  Tory  Government,  Mr.  Chamberlain  would 
beyond  question  find  a  place  on  the  Treasury 
Bench. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Chamberlain's  democratic 
views  seemed  to  have  undergone  no  modifi- 
cation. He  was  as  unsparing  as  ever  in  his 
denunciation  of  the  aristocracy  and  the  privi- 
leged classes,  and  he  was  especially  severe 
upon  the  great  landowners,  and  used  to  pro- 
pound schemes  for  buying  them  out  by  the 
State  and  converting  their  land  into  national 
property.  His  closest  ally  and  associate  in 
Parliamentary  politics  was  Sir  Charles  Dilke, 
who  had  entered  the  House  of  Commons  some 
years  before  Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  who  was 
then,  as  he  is  now,  an  advanced  and  deter- 
mined Radical.  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  in  fact,  was 
at  that  time  supposed  to  be  something  very 
like  a  Republican,  at  least  in  theory,  and  he 
had  been  exciting  great  commotion  in  several 
parts  of  the  country  by  his  outspoken  com- 
plaints about  the  vast  sums  of  money  voted 
every  year  for  the  Royal  Civil  List.  It  was 
but  natural  that  Sir  Charles  Dilke  and  Mr. 
Chamberlain  should  become  close  associates, 
and  there  was  a  general  conviction  that  the 
more  advanced   section   of  the   Liberal   party 

82 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

was  destined  to  take  the  command  in  Liberal 
politics. 

Outside  the  range  of  strictly  English  poli- 
tics there  was  a  question  arising  which  threat- 
ened to  make  a  new  division  in  the  Liberal 
party.  This  was  the  question  of  Home  Rule 
for  Ireland  as  it  presented  itself  under  the 
leadership  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell.  For 
years  the  subject  of  Home  Rule  had  been  the 
occasion,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Butt, 
of  nothing  more  formidable  to  the  House  of 
Commons  than  an  annual  debate  and  division. 
Once  in  every  session  Mr.  Butt  brought  for- 
ward a  motion  calling  for  a  measure  of  Home 
Rule  for  Ireland,  and,  after  some  eloquent 
speeches  made  in  favor  of  the  motion  by  Irish 
members,  a  few  speeches  were  delivered  on  the 
other  side  by  the  opponents  of  Home  Rule, 
Liberals  as  well  as  Tories,  and  then  some  lead- 
ing member  of  the  Government  went  through 
the  form  of  explaining  why  the  motion  could 
not  be  accepted.  A  division  was  taken,  and  Mr. 
Butt's  motion  was  found  to  have  the  support 
of  the  very  small  Irish  Nationalist  party,  as  it 
then  was,  and  perhaps  half  a  dozen  English  or 
Scotch  Radicals ;  and  the  whole  House  of  Com- 
mons, except  for  these,  declared  against  Home 

S3 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

Rule.  About  the  time,  however,  of  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain's entrance  on  the  field  of  politics  a 
great  change  had  taken  place  in  the  conditions 
of  the  Home  Rule  question.  Charles  Stewart 
Parnell  had  become  in  fact,  although  not  yet 
in  name,  the  leader  of  the  Irish  National  party, 
and  Parnell's  tactics  were  very  different  in- 
deed from  those  of  his  nominal  leader,  Mr.  Butt. 
Butt  was  a  man  who  had  great  reverence  for 
old  constitutional  forms  and  for  the  traditions 
and  ways  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  he  had 
faith  in  the  power  of  mere  argument  to  bring 
the  House  some  time  or  other  to  see  the 
justice  of  his  cause.  Parnell  was  convinced 
that  there  was  only  one  way  of  compelling  the 
House  of  Commons  to  pay  any  serious  atten- 
tion to  the  Irish  demand,  and  that  was  by 
making  it  clear  to  the  Government  and  the 
House  that  until  they  had  turned  their  full 
attention  to  the  Irish  national  claims,  they 
should  not  be  allowed  to  turn  their  attention 
to  any  other  business  whatever.  Therefore  he 
introduced  that  policy  of  obstruction  which 
has  since  become  historical,  and  which  for  a 
time  literally  convulsed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Now,  I  am  not  going  again  into  the 
oft-told  tale  of  Home  Rule  and  the  obstruc- 

84 


JOSEPH    CHAMBERLAIN 

tion  policy,  and  I  touch  upon  the  subject  here 
only  because  of  its  direct  connection  with  the 
career  of  Mr.  Chamberlain.  Sir  Charles  Dilke 
and  Mr.  Chamberlain  supported  Mr.  Parnell  in 
most  of  his  assaults  upon  the  Tory  Govern- 
ment. It  was  Parnell's  policy  to  bring  forward 
some  motion,  during  the  discussion  of  the  esti- 
mates for  the  army  and  navy  or  for  the  civil 
service,  which  should  raise  some  great  and 
important  question  of  controversy  connected 
only  in  a  technical  sense  with  the  subject  for- 
mally before  the  House,  and  thus  to  raise  a 
prolonged  debate  which  had  the  effect  of  post- 
poning to  an  indefinite  time  the  regular  move- 
ment of  business.  Thus  he  succeeded  in  stop- 
ping all  the  regular  work  of  the  House  until 
the  particular  motion  in  which  he  was  con- 
cerned had  been  fully  discussed  and  finally  set- 
tled, one  way  or  the  other.  It  was  by  action 
of  this  kind  that  he  succeeded  in  prevailing 
upon  the  House  of  Commons  to  condemn  the 
barbarous  system  of  flogging  in  the  army  and 
the  navy,  and  finally  to  obtain  its  abolition.  In 
this  latter  course  he  was  warmly  supported  by 
Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  and 
by  many  other  Liberal  members. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  obstructive  motions 
85 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

which  concerned  the  common  interests  of  the 
country  that  Parnell  obtained  the  support  of 
Sir  Charles  Dilke  and  Mr.  Chamberlain.  These 
two  men  boldly  and  vigorously  maintained  him 
in  his  policy  of  obstruction  when  it  only  pro- 
fessed to  concern  itself  with  Irish  national  ques- 
tions. They  identified  themselves  so  thoroughly 
with  his  Irish  policy  that  it  became  a  familiar 
joke  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  describe 
Dilke  and  Chamberlain  as  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral and  the  Solicitor-General  of  the  Home 
Rule  party.  I  was  then  a  member  of  the 
House,  and  had  been  elected  Vice-President  of 
the  Irish  party,  Parnell  being,  of  course,  the 
President.  Naturally,  I  was  brought  closely 
into  association  with  Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  I 
had  for  many  years  been  a  personal  friend  of 
Sir  Charles  Dilke.  Again  and  again  I  heard 
Mr.  Chamberlain  express  his  entire  approval  of 
the  obstructive  policy  adopted  by  Parnell,  and 
declare  that  that  was  the  only  way  by  which 
Parnell  could  compel  the  House  of  Commons 
to  give  a  hearing  to  the  Irish  claims.  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  indeed,  expressed,  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  in  speeches  delivered  during  a 
debate  in  the  House,  just  the  same  opinion 
as  to  Parnell's  course  which  I  had  heard  him 

86 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

utter  in  private  conversation.  In  one  of  these 
speeches  I  remember  well  his  generous  declara- 
tion that  he  was  sorry  he  had  not  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  that  opinion  to  the  House 
of  Commons  long  before.  Now,  of  course,  I 
always  thought,  and  still  think,  that  all  this  was 
much  to  the  credit  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  politi- 
cal intelligence,  courage,  and  manly  feeling, 
and  I  regarded  him  as  one  of  the  truest  Eng- 
lish friends  the  Home  Rule  cause  had  ever 
made.  I  had  the  opportunity,  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  of  hearing  Dilke  and  Chamber- 
lain define  their  respective  positions  on  the 
subject  of  Home  Rule.  Dilke  regarded  Home 
Rule  as  an  essential  part  of  a  federal  system, 
which  he  believed  to  be  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  safety,  strength,  and  prosperity  of  the  Brit- 
ish Empire.  He  would  have  made  it  a  Federal 
system,  by  virtue  of  which  each  member  of  the 
Imperial  organization  governed  its  own  domes- 
tic affairs  in  its  own  way,  while  the  common 
wishes  and  interests  of  the  Empire  were  repre- 
sented, discussed,  and  arranged  in  a  central 
Imperial  Parliament.  Therefore,  even  if  the 
Irish  people  had  not  been  themselves  awakened 
to  the  necessity  for  a  Home  Rule  Legislature 
in  Ireland,  Dilke  would  have  been  in  favor  of 

87 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

urging  on  them  the  advantages  of  such  an 
arrangement.  This,  in  point  of  fact,  is  the  sys- 
tem which  has  made  the  Canadian  and  the 
Australasian  provinces  what  they  are  at  this 
day,  contented,  loyal,  and  prosperous  members 
of  the  Imperial  system.  Chamberlain  was  not 
so  convinced  an  advocate  of  the  general  system 
of  Home  Rule  as  Dilke,  but  he  was  always  em- 
phatic in  his  declarations  that,  if  the  large  ma- 
jority of  the  Irish  people  desired  Home  Rule, 
their  desire  should  be  granted  to  them  by  the 
Imperial  Parliament.  -" 

When  I  first  entered  the  House  of  Commons, 
the  Conservative  party  was  in  ofHce.  About  a 
year  after,  the  general  election  of  1880  came 
on,  almost  in  the  ordinary  course  of  events, 
and  the  result  of  the  appeal  to  the  country  was 
that  the  Liberals  came  back  to  power  with  a 
large  majority.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  at  the  head 
of  the  Liberal  party,  and  he  became  Prime 
Minister.  Every  body  assumed  that  two  such 
prominent  Radicals  as  Dilke  and  Chamberlain 
could  not  be  overlooked  by  the  new  Prime 
Minister  in  his  arrangements  to  form  an  admin- 
istration. I  think  I  am  entitled  to  say,  as  a 
positive  fact,  that  Dilke  and  Chamberlain  en- 
tered   into   an    understanding   between    them- 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

selves  that  unless  one  at  least  of  them  was 
offered  a  place  in  the  Cabinet,  neither  would 
accept  office  of  any  kind.  Of  course  when  a 
new  Government  is  in  process  of  formation  all 
these  arrangements  are  matters  of  private  dis- 
cussion and  negotiation  with  the  men  at  the 
head  of  affairs;  and  the  result  of  interchange 
of  ideas  in  this  instance  was  that  Chamberlain 
became  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  with 
a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  and  Dilke  accepted  the 
office  of  Under-Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs, 
without  a  place  in  the  inner  Ministerial  circle. 
This  was  done,  not  only  with  Dilke's  cordial 
consent,  but  at  his  express  wish,  for  it  was  his 
strong  desire  that  the  higher  place  in  the 
administration  should  be  given  to  his  friend. 

Now,  at  this  time  Mr.  Gladstone  was  not  a 
convinced  Home  Ruler.  I  know  that  the  im- 
portance of  the  question  was  entering  his  mind 
and  was  absorbing  much  of  his  attention.  I 
know  that  he  was  earnestly  considering  the 
subject,  and  that  his  mind  was  open  to  con- 
viction ;  but  I  know  also  that  he  was  not  yet 
convinced.  Chamberlain,  therefore,  would  ap- 
parently have  had  nothing  to  gain  if  he  merely 
desired  to  conciliate  the  favor  of  his  leader  by 
still  putting  himself  forward  as  the  friend  and 

89 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

the  ally  of  the  Home  Rule  party.  But  he  con- 
tinued, when  in  office,  to  be  just  as  openly  our 
friend  as  he  had  been  in  the  days  when  he  was 
only  an  ordinary  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. There  were  times  when,  owing  to  the 
policy  of  coercion  pursued  in  Ireland  by  the 
then  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant, 
the  relations  between  the  Liberal  Government 
and  the  Home  Rule  party  were  severely  strained. 
We  did  battle  many  a  time  as  fiercely  against 
Mr.  Gladstone's  Government  as  ever  we  had 
done  against  the  Government  of  his  Tory  pre- 
decessor. Yet  Mr.  Chamberlain  always  remained 
our  friend  and  our  adviser,  always  stood  by  us 
whenever  he  could  fairly  be  expected  to  do  so 
in  public,  and  always  received  our  confidences 
in  private.  When  Mr.  Parnell  and  other  mem- 
bers of  our  party  were  thrown  into  Dublin 
prison,  Mr.  Chamberlain  did  his  best  to  obtain 
justice  and  fair  treatment  for  them  and  for  the 
Home  Rule  cause  and  for  the  Irish  people. 

Many  American  readers  will  probably  have 
a  recollection  of  what  was  called  the  Kilmain- 
ham  Treaty  —  the  "  Treaty  "  being  an  arrange- 
ment which  it  was  thought  might  be  honorably 
agreed  upon  between  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the 
leaders  of  the  Irish  party,  and  by  virtue  of  which 

90 


JOSEPH    CHAMBERLAIN 

an  improved  system  of  land-tenure  legislation 
was  to  be  given  to  Ireland,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  every  effort  was  to  be  made  to  restore 
peace  to  Ireland  on  the  other.  I  do  not  intend 
to  go  into  this  old  story  at  any  length,  my  only 
object  being  to  record  the  fact  that  the  whole 
arrangements  were  conducted  between  Mr. 
Chamberlain  and  Mr.  Parnell,  and  that  Cham- 
berlain was  still  understood  to  be  the  friend  of 
Ireland  and  of  Home  Rule.  These  negotia- 
tions led  to  the  resignation  of  office  by  the  late 
Mr.  William  Edward  Forster,  Chief  Secretary 
to  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland ;  and  then 
came  the  important  question,  Who  was  likely 
to  be  put  in  Mr.  Forster's  place?  I  believe 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  place  was  offered, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  but 
was  declined  by  him  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
not  also  offered  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  and  Dilke 
was  convinced  that  unless  he  had  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet  he  could  have  no  chance  of  pressing 
successfully  on  the  Government  his  policy  of 
Home  Rule  for  Ireland. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  then  had  reason  to  believe 
that  the  office  would  be  tendered  to  him,  and 
he  was  willing  to  accept  it  and  to  do  the  best 
he  could.     I  know  that  he  believed  that  the 

91 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

place  was  likely  to  be  offered  to  him  and  that 
he  was  ready  to  undertake  its  duties,  for  he 
took  the  very  frank  and  straightforward  course 
of  holding  a  conference  with  certain  Irish  Na- 
tionalist members  to  whom  he  made  known 
his  views  on  the  subject.  The  Irish  members 
whom  he  consulted  understood  clearly  from 
him  that  if  he  went  to  Ireland  in  the  capacity 
of  Chief  Secretary  he  would  go  as  a  Home 
Ruler  and  would  expect  their  co-operation  and 
their  assistance.  There  was  no  secret  about 
this  conference.  It  was  held  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  action  in  suggesting  and  con- 
ducting it  was  entirely  becoming  and  proper 
under  the  conditions.  For  some  reason  or  other, 
which  I  at  least  have  never  heard  satisfactorily 
explained,  the  ofifice  of  Chief  Secretary  was 
given,  after  all,  to  the  late  Lord  Frederick  Cav- 
endish. Then  followed  the  terrible  tragedy  of 
the  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin,  when  Lord  Frederick 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Burke,  his  official  subordinate, 
were  murdered  in  the  open  day  by  a  gang  of 
assassins.  When  the  news  of  this  appalling 
deed  reached  London,  Mr.  Parnell  and  I  went 
at  once,  and  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  consult 
with  Sir  Charles  Dilke  and  Mr.  Chamberlain 

92 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

as  to  the  steps  which  ought  to  be  taken  in 
order  to  vindicate  the  Irish  people  from  any 
charge  of  sympathy  with  so  wanton  and  so 
atrocious  a  crime.  We  saw  both  Dilke  and 
Chamberlain  and  consulted  with  them,  and  I 
can  well  remember  being  greatly  impressed  by 
the  firmness  with  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  de- 
clared that  nothing  which  had  happened  would 
prevent  him  from  accepting  the  office  of  Chief 
Secretary  in  Ireland  if  the  opportunity  were 
offered  to  him.  I  go  into  all  this  detail  with 
the  object  of  making  it  clear  to  the  reader  that, 
up  to  this  time,  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  the  full 
confidence  of  the  Irish  Nationalist  party  and 
was  understood  by  them  to  be  in  thorough  sym- 
pathy with  them  as  to  Ireland's  demand  for 
Home  Rule. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  did  not,  however,  become 
Irish  Secretary,  but  retained  his  position  as 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and'  many 
foreign  troubles  began  in  Egypt  and  other 
parts  of  the  world  which  diverted  the  attention 
of  Parliament  and  the  public  for  a  while  from 
questions  of  purely  domestic  policy.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, however,  succeeded  in  carrying  through 
Parliament  a  sort  of  new  reform  bill  which  re- 
constructed the   constituencies,  expanded   the 

93 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

electorate,  and,  in  fact,  set  up  in  the  three  coun- 
tries something  approaching  nearly  to  the  old 
Chartist  idea  of  equal  electoral  division  and 
universal  suffrage.  The  foreign  troubles,  how- 
ever, were  very  serious,  the  Government  lost  its 
popularity,  and  at  last  was  defeated  on  one  of 
its  financial  proposals  and  resigned  office.  The 
Tories  came  into  power  for  a  short  time.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  stumped  the  country  in  his  old 
familiar  capacity  as  a  Radical  politician  of  the 
extreme  school,  and  he  started  a  scheme  of 
policy  which  was  commonly  described  after- 
wards as  the  unauthorized  programme,  in  which 
he  advocated,  among  other  bold  reforms,  a  pea- 
sant proprietary  throughout  the  country  by  the 
compulsory  purchase  of  land,  the  effect  of  which 
would  be  to  endow  every  deserving  peasant 
with  at  least  three  acres  and  a  cow.  The  Tories 
were  not  able  to  do  anything  in  office,  owing 
to  the  combined  attacks  made  upon  them  by 
the  Radicals  and  the  Irish  Home  Rulers,  and 
in  1886  another  dissolution  of  Parliament  took 
place  and  a  general  election  came  on.  The 
effect  of  the  latest  reform  measure  introduced 
by  Mr.  Gladstone  now  told  irresistibly  in  Mr. 
Gladstone's  favor,  and  the  newly  arranged  con- 
stituencies sent  him  back  into  office  and  into 

94 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

power.  Mr.  Chamberlain  once  again  joined 
Mr.  Gladstone's  Government,  and  became  Presi- 
dent of  the  Local  Government  Board. 

Then  comes  a  sudden  change  in  the  story. 
The  extension  of  the  suffrage  gave,  for  the 
first  time,  a  large  voting  power  into  the  hands 
of  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people,  for  in  Ire- 
land up  to  that  date  the  right  to  vote  had  been 
enjoyed  only  by  the  landlord  class  and  the  well- 
to-do  middle  class ;  and  the  result  of  the  new 
franchise  was  that  Ireland  sent  into  Parliament 
an  overwhelming  number  of  Home  Rule  Repre- 
sentatives to  follow  the  leadership  of  Parnell. 
Gladstone  then  became  thoroughly  satisfied 
that  the  vast  majority  of  the  Irish  people  were 
in  favor  of  Home  Rule,  and  he  determined  to 
introduce  a  measure  which  should  give  to  Ire- 
land a  separate  domestic  Parliament.  There- 
upon Mr.  Chamberlain  suddenly  announced 
that  he  could  not  support  such  a  measure  of 
Home  Rule,  and  it  presently  came  out  that  he 
could  not  support  any  measure  of  Home  Rule. 
He  resigned  his  place  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  Gov- 
ernment, and  he  became  from  that  time  not 
only  an  opponent  of  Home  Rule  but  a  pro- 
claimed Conservative  and  anti-Radical.  When 
a  Tory  Government  was  formed,  after  the  de- 

95 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

feat  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  Home  Rule  mea- 
sure, Mr.  Chamberlain  became  a  member  of  the 
Tory  Government,  and  he  is  one  of  the  leading 
members  of  a  Tory  Government  at  this  day. 

Now,  it  is  for  this  reason,  I  suppose,  that  the 
unfriendly  critic,  of  whom  I  have  already  spoken 
more  than  once,  thought  himself  justified  in 
describino^  Mr.  Chamberlain  as  the  Rabao^as  of 
English  political  life,  /(i  is,  indeed,  hard  for 
any  of  us  to  understand  the  meaning  of  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  sudden  change.y*  At  the  open- 
ing of  1886  he  was,  what  he"  nad  been  during 
all  his  previous  political  life,  a  flaming  demo- 
crat and  Radical.  In  the  early  months  of  1886 
he  was  a  flaming  Tory  and  anti-Radical.  Dur- 
ing several  years  of  frequent  association  with 
him  in  the  House  of  Commons  I  had  always 
known  him  as  an  advocate  of  Home  Rule  for 
Ireland,  and  all  of  a  sudden  he  exhibited  him- 
self as  an  uncompromising  opponent  of  Home 
Rule.  Many  English  Liberal  members  ob- 
jected to  some  of  the  provisions  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's first  Home  Rule  Bill,  but  when  these 
objections  were  removed  in  Mr.  Gladstone's 
second  Home  Rule  Bill  they  returned  at  once 
to  their  places  under  his  leadership.  But  Mr. 
Chamberlain  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 

96 


JOSEPH   CHAMBERLAIN 

any  manner  of  Home  Rule  measure,  and  when 
he  visited  the  province  of  Ulster  in  the  north 
of  Ireland  he  delighted  all  the  Ulster  Orange- 
men by  the  fervor  of  his  speeches  against  Home 
Rule.  Moreover,  it  may  fairly  be  asked  why 
an  English  Radical  and  democrat  of  extreme 
views  must  needs  become  an  advocate  of  Tory- 
ism all  along  the  line  simply  because  he  has 
ceased  to  be  in  favor  of  Home  Rule  for  Ireland. 
These  are  questions  which  I,  at  least,  cannot 
pretend  to  answer. 

Of  course  we  have  in  history  many  instances 
of  conversions  as  sudden  and  as  complete,  about 
the  absolute  sincerity  of  which  even  the  worldly 
and  cynical  critic  has  never  ventured  a  doubt. 
There  was  the  conversion  of  Constantine  the 
Great,  and  there  was  the  sudden  change  brought 
about  in  the  feelings  and  the  life  of  Ignatius  of 
Loyola,  "^ut  then  somehow  Mr.  Chamberlain 
does  not  'seem  to  have  impressed  on  his  con- 
temporaries, either  before  or  after  his  great 
change,  the  idea  that  he  was  a  man  cast  exactly 
in  the  mold  of  a  Constantine  or  an  Ignatius. 
Only  of  late  years  has  he  been  dubbed  with  the 
familiar  nickname  of  "  Pushful  Joe,"  but  he  was 
always  set  down  as  a  man  of  personal  ambition, 
determined   to  make   his  way  well  on  in  the 

97 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

world.  We  had  all  made  up  our  minds,  some- 
how, that  he  would  be  content  to  push  his  for- 
tunes on  that  side  of  the  political  field  to  which, 
up  to  that  time,  he  had  proclaimed  himself  to 
belong,  and  it  never  occurred  to  us  to  think  of 
him  as  the  associate  of  Tory  dukes,  as  a  lead- 
ing member  of  a  Tory  Government,  and  as  the 
champion  of  Tory  principles.  Men  have  in  all 
ages  changed  their  political  faith  without  excit- 
ing the  world's  wonder.  Mr.  Gladstone  began 
as  a  Tory,  and  grew  by  slow  degrees  into  a 
Radical.  Two  or  three  public  men  in  our  own 
days  who  began  as  moderate  Liberals  have 
gradually  turned  into  moderate  Tories.  But 
Mr.  Chamberlain's  conversion  was  not  like  any 
of  these.  It  was  accomplished  with  a  sud- 
denness that  seemed  to  belong  to  the  days 
when  miracles  were  yet  worked  upon  the  earth. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  may  well  feel  proud  in  the 
consciousness  that  the  close  attention  of  the 
political  world  will  follow  with  eager  curiosity 
his  further  career. 


98 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 


I 


Photograph  copyright  by  Elhott  &  Fry 

HENRY    LABOUCHKRE 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

Henry  Labouchere  is  the  most  amusing 
speaker  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Edipse 
is  first  and  there  is  no  second  —  to  adopt  the 
words  once  used  by  Lord  Macaulay  —  at  least, 
if  there  be  a  second,  I  do  not  feel  myself  quali- 
fied for  the  task  of  designating  him.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say  that  whenever  Labou- 
chere rises  in  the  House  of  Commons  —  and 
he  rises  very  often  in  the  course  of  a  session  — 
he  is  sure  of  an  immediate  hearing.  He  sel- 
dom addresses  himself  to  any  subject  with  the 
outward  appearance  of  seriousness.  He  always 
puts  his  argument  in  jesting  form ;  sends  a 
shower  of  sparkling  words  over  the  most  sol- 
emn controversy ;  puts  on  the  manner  of  one 
who  has  plunged  into  the  debate  only  for  the 
mere  fun  of  the  thing ;  and  brings  his  display 
to  an  end  just  at  the  time  when  the  House 
hopes  that  he  is  only  beginning  to  exert  him- 
self for  its  amusement.  I  do  not  know  that  he 
has  ever  made  what  could  be  called  a  long 

•lOI 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

speech,  and  I  think  I  may  fairly  assume  that 
he  has  never  made  a  speech  which  his  au- 
dience would  not  have  wished  to  be  a  little 
longer. 

Now,  I  must  say  at  once  that  it  would  be 
the  most  complete  misappreciation  of  Henry 
Labouchere's  character  and  purpose  to  regard 
him  as  a  mere  jester,  or  even  a  mere  humor- 
ist endowed  with  the  faculty  of  uttering  spon- 
taneous witticisms.  Labouchere  is  very  much 
in  earnest  even  when  he  makes  a  joke,  and  his 
sharpest  cynicism  is  inspired  by  a  love  of  jus- 
tice and  a  desire  to  champion  the  cause  of 
what  he  believes  to  be  the  right.  I  heard  him 
once  make  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  behalf  of  some  suffering  class  or 
cause,  and  when  coming  to  a  close  he  sud- 
denly said :  *'  I  may  be  told  that  this  is  a  sen- 
timental view  of  the  case ;  but,  Mr.  Speaker,  I 
am  a  man  of  sentiment."  The  House  broke 
into  a  perfect  chorus  of  laughter  at  the  idea 
thus  presented  of  Labouchere  as  a  man  of  sen- 
timent. Probably  many,  or  most,  of  his  lis- 
teners thought  it  was  only  Labouchere's  fun, 
and  merely  another  illustration  of  his  love  for 
droll  paradox.  I  have  no  doubt  that  Labou- 
chere knew  very  well  in  advance  what  sort  of 

102 


HENRY  LABOUCHERE 

reception  was  likely  to  be  given  to  his  descrip- 
tion of  himself,  and  that  he  heartily  enjoyed 
the  effect  it  produced.  But,  all  the  same,  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  the  description.  I 
have  always  regarded  Labouchere  as  a  man 
of  intensely  strong  opinions,  whose  peculiar 
humor  it  is  to  maintain  these  opinions  by  sar- 
casm and  witticism  and  seeming  paradox. 

Certainly  no  public  man  in  England  has 
given  clearer  evidence  of  his  sincerity  and 
disinterestedness  in  any  cause  that  he  advo- 
cates than  Labouchere  has  done  again  and 
again.  I  remember  hearing  it  said  many  years 
ago  in  New  York  of  my  old  friend  Horace 
Greeley  that  whereas  some  other  editors  of 
great  newspapers  backed  up  their  money  with 
their  opinions,  Greeley  backed  up  his  opinions 
with  his  money.  The  meaning,  of  course,  was 
that  while  some  editors  shaped  their  opinions 
in  order  to  make  their  journals  profitable,  Hor- 
ace Greeley  was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  money  for 
the  sake  of  maintaining  the  newspaper  which 
expressed  his  sincere  convictions.  Something 
of  the  same  kind  might  fairly  be  said  of  Henry 
Labouchere.  He  is  the  proprietor  and  editor 
of  the  weekly  newspaper  "  Truth,"  in  which  he 
expresses  his  own  opinions  without  the  slight- 

103 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

est  regard  for  the  commercial  interests  of  the 
paper,  or,  indeed,  for  the  political  interests  of 
the  party  which  he  usually  supports  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  I  believe  that,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  "  Truth  "  is  a  most  successful  enter- 
prise, even  as  a  commercial  speculation,  for 
everybody  wants  to  know  what  it  is  likely  to 
say  on  this  or  that  new  and  exciting  question, 
and  nobody  can  tell  in  advance  what  view 
Labouchere's  organ  may  be  likely  to  take. 
Labouchere  has,  however,  given  proof  many 
times  that  he  keeps  up  his  newspaper  as  the 
organ  of  his  individual  opinions,  and  not 
merely  as  a  means  of  making  money  or  sus- 
taining the  interests  of  a  political  party.  He 
has  again  and  again  hunted  out  and  hunted 
down  evil  systems  of  various  kinds,  shams  and 
quacks  of  many  orders,  abuses  affecting  large 
masses  of  the  poor  and  the  lowly,  and  has 
rendered  himself  liable  to  all  manner  of  legal 
actions  for  the  recovery  of  damages.  If,  be- 
cause of  some  technical  or  other  failure  in  his 
defense  to  one  of  those  legal  actions,  Labou- 
chere is  cast  in  heavy  damages,  he  pays  the 
amount,  makes  a  jest  or  two  about  it,  and  goes 
to  work  at  the  collection  of  better  evidence 
and  at  the  hunting  out  of  other  shams  with 

104 


I 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

as  cheery  a  countenance  as  if  nothing  partic- 
ular had  happened.  Fortunately  for  himself, 
and,  I  think,  also  very  fortunately  for  the  pub- 
lic in  general,  Labouchere  is  personally  a  rich 
man,  and  is  able  to  meet  without  inconvenience 
any  loss  which  may  be  brought  upon  him  now 
and  then  by  his  resolute  endeavors  to  expose 
shams. 

Labouchere  spent  ten  years  of  his  earlier 
manhood  in  the  diplomatic  service,  and  was 
attache  at  various  foreign  courts  and  at  Wash- 
ington. He  had  always  a  turn  for  active  politi- 
cal life,  and  entered  the  House  of  Commons  in 
1865,  and  in  1880  was  elected  as  one  of  the 
representatives  for  the  constituency  of  North- 
ampton. His  colleague  at  that  time  in  the 
representation  of  the  constituency  was  the  once 
famous  Charles  Bradlaugh.  It  would  not  be 
easy  to  find  a  greater  contrast  in  appearance 
and  manners,  in  education  and  social  bringing 
up,  than  that  presented  by  the  two  representa- 
tives of  Northampton.  Labouchere  is  a  man 
of  barely  medium  stature  ;  Bradlaugh's  propor- 
tions approached  almost  to  the  gigantic.  One 
could  not  talk  for  five  minutes  with  Labou- 
chere and  fail  to  know,  even  if  they  had  never 
met  before,  that  Labouchere  was  a  man  born 

105 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

and  trained  to  the  ways  of  what  is  called  good 
society  ;  Bradlaugh  was  evidently  a  child  of 
the  people,  who  had  led  a  hard  and  rough- 
ening life,  and  had  had  to  make  his  way  by 
sheer  toil  and  unceasing  exertion.  Bradlaugh 
as  a  public  speaker  was  powerful  and  com- 
manding in  his  peculiar  style  —  the  style  of 
the  workingman's  platform  and  of  the  open-air 
meetings  in  Hyde  Park.  He  had  tremendous 
lungs,  a  voice  of  surprising  power  and  volume, 
and  his  speeches  were  all  attuned  to  the  tone 
of  open-air  declamation.  Most  observers,  even 
among  those  who  thoroughly  recognized  his 
great  intellectual  power  and  his  command  of 
language,  would  have  taken  it  for  granted  be- 
forehand that  he  never  could  suit  himself  to 
the  atmosphere  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Labouchere's  speeches,  even  when  delivered  to 
a  large  public  meeting,  were  pitched  in  a  con- 
versational key,  and  he  never  attempted  a 
declamatory  flight.  His  speeches  within  the 
House  of  Commons  and  outside  it  always 
sparkled  with  droll  and  humorous  illustrations, 
and  when  he  was  most  in  earnest  he  seemed 
to  be  making  a  joke  of  the  whole  business. 
Bradlaugh  was  always  terribly  in  earnest,  and 
seemed  as  if  he  were  determined  to  bear  down 

1 06 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

all  opposition  by  the  power  of  his  arguments 
and  the  volume  of  his  voice.  In  Labouchere 
you  always  found  the  man  accustomed  to  the 
polished  ways  of  diplomatic  circles  ;  in  Brad- 
laugh  one  saw  the  typical  champion  of  the 
oppressed  working  class.  Labouchere  comes, 
as  his  name  would  suggest,  from  a  French 
Huguenot  family  of  old  standing ;  Bradlaugh 
was  thoroughly  British  in  style  even  when  he 
advocated  opinions  utterly  opposed  to  those  of 
the  average  Briton. 

The  House  of  Commons  is,  on  the  whole, 
a  fair-minded  assembly,  and  even  those  who 
were  most  uncompromising  in  their  hostility 
to  some  of  Bradlaugh's  views  came  soon  to 
recognize  that  by  his  election  to  Parliament 
the  House  had  obtained  a  new  and  powerful 
debater.  Both  men  soon  won  recognition  from 
the  House  for  their  very  different  character- 
istics as  debaters,  and  at  one  time  I  think  that 
the  college-bred  country  gentlemen  of  the  Tory 
ranks  were  inclined,  on  the  whole,  to  find 
more  fault  with  Labouchere  than  with  Brad- 
laugh.  They  seemed  willing  to  make  allow- 
ances for  Bradlaugh  which  they  would  not 
make  for  his  colleague  in  the  representation 
of  Northampton.    One  can  imagine  their  rea- 

107 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

soning  out  the  matter  somewhat  in  this  way : 
This  man  Bradlaugh  comes  from  the  work- 
ing class,  is  not  in  any  sense  belonging  to  our 
order,  and  we  must  take  all  that  into  account ; 
while  this  other  man,  Labouchere,  is  of  our 
own  class,  has  had  his  education  at  Eton,  has 
been  trained  among  diplomatists  in  foreign 
courts,  is  in  fact  a  gentleman,  and  yet  is  con- 
stantly proclaiming  his  hostility  to  all  the 
established  institutions  of  his  native  country. 
Even  the  Tory  country  gentlemen,  however, 
found  it  impossible  wholly  to  resist  the  wit, 
the  sarcasms,  and  the  droll  humors  of  Labou- 
chere, and  whenever  he  spoke  in  the  House 
he  was  sure  to  have  attentive  listeners  on  all 
the  rows  of  benches. 

Bradlaugh's  actual  Parliamentary  career  did 
not  last  very  long.  When  he  was  first  elected 
for  Northampton,  he  refused  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance,  on  the  ground  that  he  could  not 
truthfully  make  that  appeal  to  the  higher  power 
with  which  the  oath  concludes.  He  was  will- 
ing to  make  an  affirmation,  but  the  majority  of 
the  House  would  not  accept  the  compromise. 
A  considerable  period  of  struggle  intervened. 
The  seat  was  declared  to  be  vacant,  but  Mr. 
Bradlaugh  was  promptly  re-elected  by  the  con- 

io8 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

stituents  of  Northampton,  and  then  there  set 
in  a  dispute  between  the  House  and  the  con- 
stituency something  Hke  that  which,  in  the 
days  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  ended  in  Catholic 
emancipation.  Bradlaugh  was  enabled  to  enter 
the  House  in  1886,  and  he  made  himself  very 
conspicuous  in  debate.  His  manners  were  re- 
markably courteous,  and  he  became  popular 
after  a  while  even  among  those  who  held  his 
political  and  religious  opinions  in  the  utmost 
abhorrence.  His  career  was  closed  in  1891  by 
death. 

I  can  well  remember  my  first  meeting  with 
Henry  Labouchere.  It  was  at  a  dinner  party 
given  by  my  friend  Sir  John  R.  Robinson,  then 
and  until  quite  lately  manager  of  the  London 
"  Daily  News."  The  dinner  was  given  at  the 
Reform  Club,  and  took  place,  I  think,  some 
time  before  Labouchere 's  election  for  North- 
ampton. I  had  never  seen  Labouchere  before 
that  time,  and  had  somehow  failed  to  learn  his 
name  before  we  sat  down  to  dinner.  We  were 
not  a  large  party,  and  the  conversation  was 
general.  I  was  soon  impressed  by  the  vivid 
and  unstrained  humor  of  Labouchere's  talk 
and  by  the  peculiarity  of  his  manner.  He 
spoke  his  sentences  in  quiet,  slow,  and  even 

109 


BRITISH    POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

languid  tones ;  there  was  nothing  whatever  of 
the  "  agreeable  rattle "  in  his  demeanor ;  he 
had  no  appearance  of  any  determination  to  be 
amusing,  or  even  consciousness  of  any  power 
to  amuse.  He  always  spoke  without  effort  and 
with  the  air  of  one  who  would  just  as  soon 
have  remained  silent  if  he  did  not  happen  to 
have  something  to  say,  and  whatever  he  did 
say  in  his  languorous  tones  was  sure  to  hold 
the  attention  and  to  delight  the  humorous  fac- 
ulties of  every  listener.  My  curiosity  was 
quickly  aroused  and  promptly  satisfied  as  to 
the  identity  of  this  delightful  talker,  and  thus 
began  my  acquaintanceship  with  Labouchere, 
which  has  lasted  ever  since,  and  is,  I  hope, 
likely  to  last  for  some  time  longer.  Labou- 
chere is  a  wonderful  teller  of  stories  drawn 
from  his  various  experiences  in  many  parts  of 
the  world,  and,  unlike  most  other  story-tellers, 
he  is  never  heard  to  repeat  an  anecdote,  unless 
when  he  was  especially  invited  to  do  so  for  the 
benefit  of  some  one  who  had  not  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  hearing  it  before.  If  he  were  only 
a  teller  of  good  stories  and  an  utterer  of  witty 
sayings,  he  would  well  deserve  a  place  in  the 
social  history  of  England  during  our  times; 
but  Labouchere's  skill  as  a  talker  is  one  of  his 

no 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

least  considerable  claims  upon  public  attention. 
Nature  endowed  Labouchere  with  what  might 
be  called  a  fighting  spirit,  and  I  believe  that 
whenever  he  sees  any  particular  cause  or  body 
of  men  apparently  put  under  conditions  of  dis- 
advantage, his  first  instinctive  inclination  is  to 
make  himself  its  advocate,  so  far  at  least  as  to 
insist  that  the  cause  or  the  men  must  have  a 
fair  hearing. 

In  the  House  of  Commons  it  could  not  have 
happened  very  often  that  Henry  Labouchere 
was  found  on  the  side  of  the  strong  battalions. 
I  know  that  during  the  heaviest  and  the  fier- 
cest struggles  of  the  Irish  National  party  against 
coercive  laws  and  in  favor  of  Ireland's  demand 
for  Home  Rule,  Henry  Labouchere  was  always 
found  voting  with  us  in  the  division  lobby. 
Some  of  those  days  were  very  dark  indeed. 
Before  Gladstone  had  become  converted  to  the 
principle  of  Home  Rule  for  Ireland,  and  before 
the  later  changes  in  the  system  of  Parliamen- 
tary representation  had  given  an  extended  pop- 
ular suffrage  to  the  Irish  constituencies,  the 
number  of  Irish  representatives  who  followed 
the  leadership  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell  was 
for  many  sessions  not  more  than  seven  or  eight. 
There  were  some  English  members  who  always 

III 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

voted  with  us,  and  conspicuous  and  constant 
among  these  were  Sir  Wilfred  Lawson  and 
Henry  Labouchere.  Unquestionably  neither 
Labouchere  nor  Lawson  had  anything  what- 
ever to  gain  in  Parliamentary  or  worldly  sense 
by  identifying  himself  with  our  efforts  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  As  soon  as  Ireland  got 
her  fair  share  of  the  popular  franchise,  Parnell 
was  followed  by  some  eighty  or  ninety  mem- 
bers out  of  the  hundred  and  three  who  consti- 
tute the  whole  Irish  representation.  This  was 
the  very  fact  which  first  brought  Gladstone, 
as  I  heard  from  his  own  lips,  to  see  that  the 
demand  of  Ireland  was  in  every  sense  a  thor- 
oughly national  demand,  and  that  the  whole 
principle  of  the  British  constitution  claimed  for 
it  the  consideration  of  genuine  statesmanship. 
Labouchere  had  identified  himself  with  the 
national  cause  in  the  days  before  that  cause 
had  yet  found  anything  like  representation  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  Through  all  his  po- 
litical career  he  remained  faithful  to  that  prin- 
ciple of  nationality,  and  in  the  time  —  I  hope 
not  distant  —  when  the  Irish  claim  for  Home 
Rule  is  recognized  and  accepted  by  the  British 
Parliament,  Ireland  is  not  likely  to  forget  that 
Henry  Labouchere  was  one  of   the  very  few 

112 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

English  members  who  recognized  and  champi- 
oned her  claim  in  the  hour  when  almost  every 
man's  hand  was  against  it. 

Perhaps  the  inborn  spirit  of  adventure  which 
makes  itself  so  apparent  in  Labouchere's  tem- 
perament and  career  may  have  had  something 
to  do  with  his  championship  of  the  oppressed. 
I  do  not  say  this  with  any  intention  to  dispar- 
age Labouchere's  genuine  desire  to  uphold  what 
he  believes  to  be  the  right,  but  only  to  illus- 
trate the  peculiarities  of  his  nature.  Certainly 
his  love  of  adventure  has  made  itself  conspicu- 
ous and  impressive  at  many  stages  of  his  varied 
career.  There  is  a  legend  to  the  effect  that 
Labouchere  joined  at  one  time  the  company  of 
a  traveling  circus  in  the  United  States  for  the 
novelty  and  amusement  of  the  enterprise.  I 
do  not  know  whether  there  is  any  truth  in  this 
story,  but  I  should  certainly  be  quite  prepared 
to  believe  it  on  anything  like  authentic  evi- 
dence. The  adventure  would  seem  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  temper  of  the  man.  Most  of 
us  know  what  happened  when  the  Germans 
were  besieging  Paris  during  the  war  of  1870. 
It  suddenly  occurred  to  Labouchere  that  it 
would  be  a  most  interesting  chapter  in  a  man's 
life  if  he  were  to  spend  the  winter  in  the  be- 

113 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

sieged  city.  No  sooner  said,  or  thought,  than 
done.  Labouchere  was  then  one  of  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  London  "  Daily  News,"  and  he 
announced  his  determination  to  undertake  the 
task  of  representing  that  journal  in  Paris  as 
long  as  the  siege  should  last.  Of  course  he 
obtained  full  authority  for  the  purpose,  and  he 
contrived  to  make  his  way  into  Paris,  and  when 
there  he  relieved  the  regular  correspondent  of 
the  "  Daily  News "  from  his  wearisome  and 
perilous  work  by  sending  him  off,  in  a  balloon, 
I  believe,  to  Tours,  where  he  was  out  of  the 
range  of  the  German  forces,  and  could  continue 
his  daily  survey  of  events  in  general.  Then 
Labouchere  set  himself  down  to  enjoy  all  the 
hardships  of  the  siege,  to  live  on  the  flesh  of 
horse  and  donkey  and  even  cat  and  rat,  to 
endure  the  setting  in  of  utter  darkness  when 
once  the  sun  had  gone  down,  and  to  chronicle 
a  daily  account  of  his  strange  experiences.  This 
was  accomplished  in  his  "  Diary  of  a  Besieged 
Resident,"  which  appeared  from  day  to  day  in 
the  columns  of  the  "  Daily  News,"  and  was 
afterwards  published  as  a  volume,  and  a  most 
entertaining,  humorous,  realistic,  and  delight- 
ful volume  it  made.  The  very  difficulties  of  its 
transmission  by  means  of  balloons  and  pigeons 

114 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

and  other  such  floating  or  flying  agencies  must 
have  been  a  constant  source  of  amusement 
and  excitement  to  the  adventurous  besieged 
resident. 

Labouchere  has  always  been  in  the  habit  of 
seeking  excitement  by  enterprises  on  the  Stock 
Exchange.  I  do  not  believe  that  these  ven- 
tures have  been  made  with  the  commonplace 
desire  to  make  money,  but  I  can  quite  under- 
stand that  they  are  prompted  by  the  very  same 
desire  for  new  experiences  which  prompted  the 
residence  in  besieged  Paris.  I  remember  meet- 
ing Labouchere  one  day  many  years  ago  in  a 
West  End  London  street,  and  being  told  by 
him  that  he  had  just  incurred  a  very  heavy  loss 
by  one  of  his  financial  ventures  on  the  Stock 
Exchange.  He  told  me  in  his  usual  tones  of 
almost  apathetic  languor  the  amount  of  his 
loss,  and  it  seemed  to  my  modest  experiences  in 
money  affairs  to  be  a  positive  fortune  sacrificed. 
He  was  smiling  blandly  while  recounting  his 
adventure,  and  I  could  not  help  asking  him  how 
he  had  felt  when  the  loss  was  first  made  known 
to  him.  "  Well,"  he  replied,  in  the  same  good- 
humored  tone,  "  it  was  an  experience,  like  an- 
other." That,  I  think,  is  a  fair  illustration  of 
Labouchere 's  governing  mood.  The  great  thing 

115 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

was  to  get  a  new  sensation.  At  one  time  La- 
bouchere  became  the  founder  and  the  owner  of 
a  new  theater  in  London,  and  he  took  part  in 
many  a  newspaper  enterprise.  He  was,  as  I 
have  said,  for  a  long  time  one  of  the  proprie- 
tors of  the  "  Daily  News,"  and  he  entered  into 
that  proprietorship  at  the  very  time  when  the 
"  Daily  News  "  was  making  itself  most  unpop- 
ular in  capitalist  circles  and  in  what  is  known 
as  society,  by  its  resolute  and  manly  adherence 
to  the  side  of  the  Federal  States  during  the 
great  American  Civil  War.  It  suited  Labou- 
chere's  pluck  and  temper  to  join  in  such  an 
undertaking  at  the  time  when  the  odds  seemed 
all  against  it ;  and  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  I 
am  sure  no  love  for  a  new  sensation  could 
induce  Labouchere  to  take  up  any  cause  which 
he  did  not  believe  to  be  the  cause  of  right. 

Labouchere  was  one  of  those  who  went  in 
with  the  late  Edmund  Yates  in  founding  "  The 
World,"  then  quite  a  new  venture  as  a  society 
journal.  Labouchere,  however,  did  not  long 
remain  a  sharer  in  this  enterprise.  Yates  was 
the  editor  of  the  paper,  and  Yates  went  in  alto- 
gether for  satirical  or  at  least  amusing  pictures 
of  West  End  life,  and  did  not  care  anything 
about  politics  and  the  struggles  of  this  or  that 

ii6 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

political  movement.  Labouchere  could  not 
settle  down  to  any  interest  in  a  newspaper 
which  dealt  only  with  changes  of  fashion  and 
the  whimsicalities  of  social  life.  His  close 
interest  in  political  questions  filled  him  with 
the  resolve  to  start  a  journal  which,  while  deal- 
ing with  the  personages  and  the  ways  of  soci- 
ety, should  also  be  the  organ  of  his  own  views 
on  graver  subjects.  He  therefore  withdrew 
from  all  concern  in  Edmund  Yates's  "  World  " 
and  started  his  own  weekly  newspaper, "  Truth," 
which  has  since  enjoyed  a  life  of  vigor  and  suc- 
cess. There  is  room  enough  for  both  papers 
apparently.  The  "  World "  has  not  lost  its 
circle  of  readers,  while  "  Truth  "  is  beyond  ques- 
tion a  great  power  in  political  and  financial  as 
well  as  in  social  movements. 

One  of  Labouchere's  special  delights  is  to 
expose  in  "  Truth  "  some  successful  adventurer 
in  pretentious  financial  schemes,  some  hypo- 
critical projector  of  sham  philanthropic  institu- 
tions, some  charlatan  with  whom,  because  of 
his  temporary  influence  and  success,  most  other 
people  are  unwilling  to  try  conclusions.  Such 
an  impostor  is  just  the  sort  of  man  whom  La- 
bouchere is  delighted  to  encounter.  Labou- 
chere's plan  is  simple  and  straightforward.    He 

117 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

publishes  an  article  in  "  Truth  "  containing  the 
most  direct  and  explicit  charges  of  imposture 
and  fraud  against  the  man  whom  he  has  deter- 
mined to  expose,  and  he  invites  this  man  to 
bring  an  action  against  him  in  a  court  of  law 
and  obtain  damages,  if  he  can,  for  slander. 
Labouchere  usually  intimates  politely  that  he 
will  not  avail  himself  of  any  preliminary  and 
technical  forms  which  might  interpose  unne- 
cessary delay,  and  that  he  will  do  all  in  his 
power  as  defendant  to  facilitate  and  hasten 
the  trial  of  the  action.  It  happens  in  many  or 
most  cases  that  the  personage  thus  invited  to 
appeal  to  a  court  of  law  cautiously  refrains 
from  accepting  the  invitation.  He  knows  that 
Labouchere  has  plenty  of  money,  perceives  that 
he  is  not  to  be  frightened  out  of  his  allegations, 
and  probably  thinks  the  safest  course  is  to 
treat  "  Truth  "  and  its  owner  with  silent  con- 
tempt. Sometimes,  however,  the  accused  man 
accepts  battle  in  a  court  of  law,  and  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public  is  riveted  on  the  hearing  of 
the  case.  Perhaps  Labouchere  fails  to  make 
out  every  one  of  his  charges,  and  then  the  re- 
sult is  formally  against  him  and  he  may  be 
cast  in  damages,  but  he  cares  nothing  for  the 
cost  and   is  probably  well   satisfied  with   the 

ii8 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

knowledge  that  he  has  directed  the  full  criti- 
cism of  the  public  to  the  general  character  of 
his  opponent's  doings  and  has  made  it  impos- 
sible for  the  opponent  to  work  much  harm  in 
the  future.  Even  the  strongest  political  an- 
tagonists of  Labouchere  have  been  found  ready 
to  admit  that  he  has  rendered  much  service 
to  the  public  by  his  resolute  efforts  to  expose 
shams  and  quackeries  of  various  kinds  at  what- 
ever pecuniary  risk  or  cost  to  himself. 

I  do  not  know  whether  it  would  be  quite 
consistent  with  the  realities  of  the  situation  if 
I  were  to  describe  Labouchere  as  a  favorite  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  He  has  provoked  so 
many  enmities,  he  has  made  so  many  enemies 
by  his  sharp  sarcasms,  his  unsparing  ridicule, 
and  his  sometimes  rather  heedless  personal- 
ities, that  a  great  many  members  of  the  House 
must  be  kept  in  a  state  of  chronic  indignation 
towards  him.  A  man  who  arouses  a  feeling  of 
this  kind  and  keeps  it  alive  among  a  consid- 
erable number  of  his  brother  members  could 
hardly  be  described  with  strict  justice  as  a 
favorite  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Yet  it  is 
quite  certain  that  there  is  no  man  in  the  House 
whose  sayings  are  listened  to  with  a  keener 
interest,  and  whose  presence  would  be  more 

119 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

generally  missed  if  he  were  to  retire  from  pub- 
lic life. 

One  of  the  many  stories  which  I  have  heard 
about  Labouchere's  peculiar  ways  when  he  was 
in  the  diplomatic  service  is  worth  repeating 
here.  It  has  never  been  contradicted,  so  far  as 
I  know.  When  Labouchere  was  attache  to  the 
British  Legation  at  Washington  —  it  was  then 
only  a  Legation  —  his  room  was  invaded  one 
day  by  an  indignant  John  Bull,  fresh  from 
England,  who  had  some  grievance  to  bring 
under  the  notice  of  the  British  Minister.  That 
eminent  personage  was  not  then  in  the  house, 
and  the  man  with  the  grievance  was  shown  into 
Labouchere's  room.  Labouchere  was  smoking 
a  cigarette,  according  to  his  custom,  and  he 
received  the  visitor  blandly,  but  without  any 
effusive  welcome.  John  Bull  declared  that  he 
must  see  the  Minister  at  once,  and  Labouchere 
mildly  responded  that  the  British  Minister  was 
not  in  the  Legation  buildings.  "When  will 
he  return.?"  was  the  next  demand,  to  which 
Labouchere  could  only  make  answer  that  he 
really  did  not  know.  "  Then,"  declared  the 
resolute  British  citizen,  "  I  have  only  to  say  that 
I  shall  wait  here  until  he  returns."  Labou- 
chere signified  his  full  concurrence  with  this 

120 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

proposal,  and  graciously  invited  his  country- 
man to  take  a  chair,  and  then  went  on  with  his 
reading  and  noting  of  letters  and  his  cigarette 
just  as  before.  Hours  glided  away,  and  no 
further  word  was  exchanged.  At  last  the  hour 
came  for  closing  the  official  rooms,  and  Labou- 
chere  began  to  put  on  his  coat  and  make  prepa- 
rations for  a  speedy  departure.  The  visitor 
thereupon  saw  that  the  time  had  come  for 
some  decided  movement  on  his  part,  and  he 
sternly  put  to  Labouchere  the  question,  "  Can 
you  tell  me  where  the  British  Minister  is  just 
now  ? "  Labouchere  replied,  with  his  usual 
unruffled  composure,  "  I  really  cannot  tell  you 
exactly  where  he  is  just  now,  but  I  should 
think  he  must  be  nearly  halfway  across  the 
Atlantic,  as  he  left  New  York  for  England  last 
Saturday."  Up  rose  John  Bull  in  fierce  indig- 
nation, and  exclaimed,  "  You  never  told  me 
that  he  had  left  for  England."  "You  never 
asked  me  the  question,"  Labouchere  made  an- 
swer, with  undisturbed  urbanity,  and  the  visitor 
had  nothing  for  it  but  to  go  off  in  storm. 

Labouchere  is  the  possessor  of  a  beautiful 
and  historic  residence  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames  —  Pope's  famous  villa  at  Twickenham. 
There  he  is  in  the  habit  of  entertaining  his 

121 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

friends  during  the  summer  months,  and  there 
one  is  sure  to  meet  an  interesting  and  amusing 
company.  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  being 
his  guest  many  times,  and  I  need  hardly  say 
that  I  have  always  found  such  visits  delightful. 
Labouchere  is  a  most  charming  host,  and  al- 
though he  is  himself  a  wonderful  talker,  full 
of  anecdote  and  reminiscence,  he  never  fails 
to  see  that  the  conversation  is  thoroughly  dif- 
fused, and  that  no  guest  is  left  out  of  the 
talk.  In  London  he  always  mixes  freely  with 
society,  and  his  London  home  is  ever  hospi- 
table. Many  of  his  friends  were  strongly  of 
opinion  that  he  ought  to  have  been  invited  to 
become  a  member  of  a  Liberal  administration. 
I  suppose,  however,  that  most  of  the  solid  and 
steady  personages  who  form  a  Cabinet  would 
have  been  rather  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  so 
daring  and  damaging  a  free  lance  being  ap- 
pointed to  a  high  place  in  the  official  ranks  of 
a  Government,  and  it  would  have  been  out 
of  the  question  to  think  of  offering  any  sub- 
ordinate position  to  so  brilliant  a  master  of 
Parliamentary  debate.  For  myself  I  do  not 
feel  any  regret  that  Labouchere,  so  far,  has  not 
taken  any  place  in  an  administration.  He  has 
made  his  fame  as  a  free  lance,  and  has  done 

122 


HENRY   LABOUCHERE 

efficient  public  work  in  that  capacity,  such  as 
he  could  hardly  have  accomplished  if  he  had 
been  set  down  to  the  regular  and  routine  duties 
of  an  official  post.  He  has  made  a  name  for 
himself  by  his  independent  support  of  every 
cause  and  movement  which  he  believed  to  have 
justice  on  its  side,  and  I  could  not  think  with 
any  satisfaction  of  a  so-called  promotion  which 
must  submerge  his  individuality  in  the  mea- 
sured counsels  and  compromises  of  a  number 
of  administrative  colleagues.  I  prefer  still  to 
think  of  him  as  Henry  Labouchere,  and  not  as 
the  Rio^ht  Honorable  Gentleman  at  the  head 
of  this,  that,  or  the  other  department  of  State. 


123 


JOHN   MORLEY 


Photograph  cnpyntrht  hy  London  Stereoscopic  Co. 

JOHN    MORLEY 


JOHN    MORLEY 

No  English  public  man  of  the  present  day 
has  had  a  more  remarkable  political  career 
than  that  of  John  Morley.  Almost  everything 
that  could  be  against  success  in  political  life 
was  against  John  Morley  when  he  arose  from 
the  student's  desk  to  take  his  place  on  the 
political  platform.  I  am  not  now  making  any 
allusion  to  the  diflficulties  set  in  a  man's  way 
by  those  accidents  which  the  first  Lord  Lytton 
described  grandiloquently  as  the  "  twin  gaolers 
of  the  human  heart,  low  birth  and  iron  fortune." 
I  am  not  quite  certain  what  iron  fortune  may 
be,  but  if  I  assume  it  to  be  early  poverty  I  do 
not  regard  it  as  a  very  formidable  obstruction 
to  human  genius  in  our  times.  We  have  many 
successful  men  in  public  life  just  now  who 
were  born  in  humble  station  and  had  to  strug- 
gle hard  for  a  long  time  against  poverty.  John 
Morley  was  not  born  in  humble  life,  as  the 
phrase  goes,  and  had  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  to 
struggle   against   early   poverty.     He   had   an 

127 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

Oxford  University  education  and  was  called 
to  the  bar,  but  did  not  make  any  effort  after 
success  in  that  profession.  The  difficulties  to 
which  I  have  alluded  as  standing  in  his  way 
when  he  determined  to  seek  a  career  in  politi- 
cal and  Parliamentary  life  had  nothing  to  do 
with  birth  and  with  poverty  —  they  were  of 
quite  a  different  order. 

Morley  had  taken  to  literature  as  a  profes- 
sion, and  had  made  for  himself  a  distinguished 
name  as  a  writer  of  books  and  an  editor  of 
reviews  and  newspapers  before  he  obtained  a 
seat  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Now,  there 
is,  or  used  to  be,  a  sort  of  fixed  belief  in  the 
British  public  mind  that  a  literary  man  is  not, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  qualified  for  success  in 
Parliamentary  work.  We  are  somewhat  getting 
over  this  idea  of  late,  and  indeed  there  were 
at  all  times  living  evidences  enough  to  shake 
such  a  faith.  The  generation  which  recog- 
nized the  success  won  in  Parliamentary  debate 
by  a  Macaulay,  a  Disraeli,  and  a  Bulwer-Lytton 
might  well  have  got  over  the  notion  that  liter- 
ary men  cannot  succeed  in  Parliament;  but 
even  up  to  the  time  of  John  Morley 's  election 
to  the  House  of  Commons  the  idea  found  still 
a  very  general  acceptation.    Another  and  much 

128 


JOHN   MORLEY 

more  serious  difficulty  in  John  Morley's  way 
was  the  fact  that  he  was  a  proclaimed  agnostic 
in  questions  of  religious  faith.  Now,  the  aver- 
age Englishman  can  hardly  be  described  as 
one  imbued  with  profound  and  exalted  religious 
convictions,  but  it  may  be  taken  for  granted 
that  he  thinks  every  respectable  person  who  is 
fit  to  be  a  member  of  Parliament  ought  to  con- 
form to  some  recognized  creed  and  to  attend 
some  authorized  place  of  worship.  John  Mor- 
ley  was  at  one  time  not  merely  an  agnostic,  but 
an  avowed  and  somewhat  aggressive  agnostic, 
and  his  brilliant  pen  had  often  been  employed 
to  deal  satirically  with  some  established  doc- 
trine. 

In  England  there  is  little  or  no  general  ob- 
jection to  freedom  of  opinion  so  long  as  it  is 
a  question  merely  of  opinion.  We  may  know 
that  a  man  holds  free-thinking  opinions,  but  we 
feel  no  wish  to  inflict  any  manner  of  punish- 
ment or  deprivation  on  him  so  long  as  he  keeps 
his  opinions  to  himself  and  does  not  endeavor 
to  make  them  prevail  with  others.  This,  how- 
ever, was  what  John  Morley  had  got  into  the 
way  of  doing.  When  he  felt  a  strong  con- 
viction on  any  subject  which  seemed  to  him 
important,  he  always  endeavored  to  justify  his 

129 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

faith  by  argument  and  to  bring  others  round 
to  his  views  of  the  question. 

I  can  well  remember  that  many  of  Morley's 
admirers  and  friends  were  but  little  gratified 
when  it  was  first  made  known  that  he  intended 
to  seek  for  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Their  impression  was  that  he  was  just  then 
doing  in  effective  and  admirable  style  the  very 
kind  of  work  for  which  he  was  best  qualified, 
and  that  it  was  a  pity  he  should  run  the  risk  of 
marring  such  a  career  for  the  sake  of  entering 
a  political  field  in  which  he  might  possibly  win 
no  success,  and  in  which  success,  even  if  won, 
would  be  poor  compensation  for  the  sacrifice 
of  better  work.  Morley,  however,  seems  to 
have  made  up  his  mind,  even  at  an  early  period 
of  his  career,  that  he  would  try  his  chance  in 
Parliament.  So  long  ago  as  1865  he  became  a 
candidate  for  a  constituency  in  the  North  of 
England,  but  was  not  successful ;  and  in  1880, 
after  he  had  won  genuine  celebrity  by  his 
biography  of  Edmund  Burke,  that  of  Voltaire, 
that  of  Rousseau,  and  other  books  of  the  same 
order,  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  great 
metropolitan  division  of  Westminster.  Here 
again  he  was  unsuccessful,  and  it  was  only  in 
1883  that  he  first  obtained  a  seat  in  the  House 

130 


JOHN    MORLEY 

of  Commons  as  the  representative  of  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne.  I  can  well  remember  listening  with 
the  deepest  interest  to  his  maiden  speech  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  The  general  impres- 
sion of  the  House  was  that  the  speech  would 
prove  a  failure,  for  only  too  many  members  had 
already  made  up  their  minds,  according  to  the 
usual  fashion  of  the  day,  that  a  successful  liter- 
ary man  was  not  likely  to  become  a  Parliamen- 
tary success.  There  was  a  common  impression 
also  that,  despite  his  great  gifts  as  a  writer  and 
his  proved  capacity  as  a  journalist  and  editor, 
John  Morley  must  be  an  impracticable  sort  of 
person.  He  had  been  at  one  time  well  known 
as  an  associate  of  the  famous  Positivist  order 
of  thinkers  —  the  order  to  which  men  like 
Frederic  Harrison  and  Richard  Congreve  be- 
longed. The  average  member  of  Parliament 
could  see  no  chance  for  a  disciple  of  that 
school,  which  this  average  member  regarded 
merely  as  a  group  of  dreamers,  to  make  any 
mark  in  a  practical  assembly  where  the  routine 
business  of  legislation  had  to  be  carried  on. 
Morley 's  speech  was,  however,  a  distinct  and 
unmistakable  success. 

What  first  impressed  the  House  of  Commons 
was  the  ready,  quiet  force  of  Morley 's  delivery. 

131 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

He  had  a  fine,  clear  voice,  he  spoke  without 
notes  and  without  any  manifest  evidence  of 
preparation,  every  sentence  expressed  without 
effort  the  precise  meaning  which  he  wished  to 
convey,  and  his  style  had  an  eloquence  pecu- 
liarly its  own.  What  most  men  expected  of 
him  was  the  philosophical  discourse  of  a  student 
and  a  thinker  no  longer  in  his  fitting  place,  and 
what  was  least  expected  of  him  was  just  that 
which  he  delivered,  a  ready,  telling,  and  power- 
ful Parliamentary  speech.  He  had  some  un- 
expected difficulties  to  encounter,  because  he 
gave  out  his  opinions  so  forcibly  and  so  boldly 
that  their  utterance  called  forth  frequent  inter- 
ruptions —  an  unusual  event  in  the  case  of  a 
maiden  speech,  which  is  generally  regarded  as 
a  mere  introductory  ceremonial  and  is  taken 
politely  as  a  necessary  matter  of  form.  The 
House  soon  found,  however,  that  John  Morley's 
speech  did  not  by  any  means  belong  to  the 
ordinary  category  of  maiden  performances,  and 
the  very  interruptions  were  therefore  a  positive 
tribute  to  the  importance  of  the  new  member's 
argument.  The  interruptions  were  in  every 
sense  fortunate  for  Morley,  because  they  en- 
abled him  at  this  very  first  opportunity  to  prove 
his  ready  capacity  for  debate.     He  replied  on 

132 


JOHN    MORLEY 

the  spur  of  the  moment  to  every  interruption 
and  every  interjected  question,  and  he  showed 
all  the  composure,  all  the  promptitude  and  the 
command,  of  a  practiced  Parliamentary  de- 
bater. Every  man  in  the  House  whose  opinion 
was  worth  having  at  once  recognized  the  fact 
that  a  new  force  had  come  up  in  Parliamentary 
debate,  and  when  John  Morley  resumed  his 
seat  he  must  have  known  that  he  had  accom- 
plished a  complete  success.  From  that  time 
onward  John  Morley  has  always  been  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  most  powerful  speakers  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  His  voice  is  clear, 
resonant,  and  musical,  the  light  of  intellect 
gleams  in  his  earnest  eyes,  his  argument  is 
always  well  sustained  and  set  off  with  varied 
and  appropriate  illustration,  and  whenever  he 
rises  to  speak  he  is  sure  to  have  a  deeply  atten- 
tive audience. 

Morley  is  not  in  the  highest  sense  one  of  the 
orators  of  Parliament.  He  is  not  to  be  classed, 
and  has  never  sought  to  be  classed,  with  such 
men  as  Gladstone  and  Bright.  But,  short  of 
the  highest  gift  of  eloquence,  he  has  every 
quality  needed  to  make  a  great  Parliamentary 
debater.  When  he  addresses  the  House  of 
Commons,  one  ceases  to  think  of  him  merely 

133 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

as  the  scholar  and  the  author,  and  he  becomes 
the  man  who  can  command  the  House  by 
the  arguments  and  the  eloquence  which  the 
House  best  understands.  There  are  many  men 
of  high  intellectual  capacity  who  occasionally 
take  part  in  a  Parliamentary  debate  and  who 
are  always  regarded  as  in  the  House  but  not 
of  it.  John  Morley  proved  from  his  very  first 
effort  that  he  was  of  the  House  as  well  as  in  it. 
I  have  heard  him  make  great  platform  speeches, 
and  I  think  he  comes  nearer  to  the  highest 
order  of  eloquence  when  addressing  an  ordinary 
political  meeting  than  even  when  addressing  the 
House,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  at  the  present 
time  the  House  of  Commons  has  no  member 
who  can  more  completely  command  its  atten- 
tion. It  must  be  said,  too,  that  the  character  of 
the  man  himself,  his  transparent  sincerity,  his 
absolute  devotedness  to  principle,  his  fearless 
and  unselfish  consistency,  count  for  much  in 
the  commanding  position  which  he  has  obtained. 
The  integrity  of  Morley's  career  is  absolutely 
beyond  criticism  or  cavil.  It  never  entered 
into  the  mind  of  his  bitterest  opponent  to  sus- 
pect for  a  moment  that  Morley  could  be  in- 
fluenced by  any  personal  consideration  in  the 
course  which  he  took  or  the  words  which  he 

134 


JOHN    MORLEY 

uttered.  Other  men  of  high  position  in  ParHa- 
ment  are  commonly  set  down  as  having  taken 
this  or  that  course,  modified  or  suppressed  this 
or  that  opinion,  for  the  sake  of  personal  ad- 
vancement, or  at  least  for  the  sake  of  maintain- 
ing the  interests  of  a  party.  But  everybody 
knows  that  John  Morley  has  never  sought  for 
office,  and  could  never  be  induced  to  make  any 
compromise  of  political  principle  even  for  the 
sake  of  maintaining  in  power  the  political  party 
to  which  he  belongs.  The  universal  recogni- 
tion of  that  great  quality  in  him  has  added 
unspeakably  to  his  influence  in  Parliament. 
He  was  not  at  any  time  a  frequent  speaker  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  of  course  he  never 
was  a  mere  talker.  He  speaks  only  when  he 
has  something  to  say  which  he  believes  ought 
to  be  said  and  to  be  said  by  him,  and  he  never 
seems  to  have  any  temptation  to  enter  into 
debate  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  taking  part  in 
the  controversy.  If  a  man  is  really  a  good 
speaker,  the  House  is  always  ready  to  listen  to 
him  no  matter  how  often  he  may  speak,  for  the 
plain  reason  that  debate  has  to  go  on  for  a  cer- 
tain number  of  hours  each  day,  and  it  is  more 
pleasant  to  listen  to  a  member  who  talks  well 
than  to  one  who  talks  badly.     But,  no  matter 

135 


BRITISH  POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

how  effective  and  eloquent  a  speaker  may  be, 
it  is  quite  certain  that  the  House  will  give  him 
a  more  attentive  ear  if  it  knows  beforehand 
that  whenever  he  rises  to  take  part  in  debate 
it  is  sure  to  hear  something  which  up  to  that 
moment  has  not  been  spoken.  John  Morley, 
therefore,  very  soon  became  one  of  that  small 
body  of  men  in  the  House  of  Commons  whose 
rising  to  speak  is  always  regarded  as  an  event 
of  interest  and  importance. 

In  the  retrospect  of  John  Morley's  career  one 
is  brought  up  with  something  approaching  to 
a  shock  of  surprise  when  he  remembers  that  at 
the  opening  of  Morley's  Parliamentary  life  he 
was  closely  associated  with  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain. I  remember  having  heard  people  say  at 
the  time  that  Chamberlain  took  much  credit  to 
himself  on  the  ground  that  he  had  urged  and 
prevailed  upon  John  Morley  to  persevere  in 
seeking  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  at  that  time  an  extreme  and 
uncompromising  Radical.  He  was  an  avowed 
and  constant  supporter  of  the  Home  Rule 
party ;  was  in  close  alliance  with  Parnell ;  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
so-called  Kilmainham  Treaty,  and  delivered 
a  warm  panegyric  on  Parnell  himself  and  Par- 

136 


JOHN   MORLEY 

nell's  policy  to  a  crowded  and  for  the  most 
part  an  indignant  House  of  Commons.  There 
was,  therefore,  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact 
that  Morley  and  Chamberlain  were  at  that 
time  friends  and  allies  in  political  affairs,  nor 
had  any  one  then  the  faintest  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  Chamberlain  was  ever  destined  to 
undergo  a  sudden  and  miraculous  conversion 
to  ultra-Tory  principles.  When  Mr.  Gladstone 
came  into  office  in  1886  with  what  was  known 
to  be  a  Home  Rule  administration,  John  Mor- 
ley obtained  the  position  of  Chief  Secretary  to 
the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  with  a  seat  in 
the  Cabinet.  It  is  not  by  any  means  a  matter 
of  course  that  the  Irish  Chief  Secretary  should 
be  a  Cabinet  Minister.  Sometimes  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  himself  has  a  place  in  the  Cabinet 
and  the  Chief  Secretary  is  merely  an  ordi- 
nary member  of  the  Government;  sometimes, 
when  the  Chief  Secretary  is  regarded  as  a 
very  strong  man,  he  is  invited  to  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet  and  his  official  master  remains  out- 
side. John  Morley  was  recognized  from  the 
first  by  Gladstone  as  a  man  of  the  highest 
political  capacity  and  character,  and  when  the 
new  administration  came  to  be  formed  Glad- 
stone made  evident  this   estimate   of  Morley 

137 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

by  offering  him  a  place  in  the  Cabinet.  The 
keenest  interest  was  felt  alike  both  by  politi- 
cal friends  and  political  enemies  in  Morley's 
management  of  Irish  affairs.  The  new  Secre- 
tary for  Ireland  was  entering  bravely  on  an 
enterprise  the  immediate  success  of  which  was, 
under  the  conditions,  absolutely  impossible.  I 
have  no  doubt  whatever  that  success  could 
have  been  easily  and  completely  accomplished 
if  John  Morley  had  been  allowed  his  own  way 
in  dealing  with  the  whole  Irish  question  — 
if,  for  instance,  he  had  been  placed  in  such 
a  position  of  dictatorship  as  that  which  was 
given  to  Lord  Durham  when  Durham  was 
sent  out  to  deal  with  the  rebellion  in  Can- 
ada. Durham  saw  but  one  remedy  for  the 
long  discontents  and  troubles  of  the  Canadian 
populations,  and  that  remedy  he  found  in  the 
system  of  Home  Rule  which  has  since  made 
Canada  peaceful,  prosperous,  and  well  content 
with  the  place  she  holds  in  the  British  Em- 
pire. If  John  Morley  could  have  been  invested 
with  such  powers  as  those  given  to  Lord 
Durham,  he  might  have  made  of  Ireland 
another  prosperous  and  contented  Canada. 
But  Morley  had  to  administer  the  affairs  of 
Ireland   at   a   time   when   the  opinion  of   the 

138 


JOHN    MORLEY 

English  majority  had  not  yet  risen  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  Home  Rule,  at  least  so  far  as  Ireland 
was  concerned,  and  without  such  recognition 
it  was  beyond  the  reach  of  statesmanship  to 
satisfy  the  national  demands  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple. Every  Irish  Nationalist  knew  perfectly 
well  that  John  Morley's  heart  and  intellect 
alike  were  with  the  cause  of  Irish  Home  Rule. 
All  that  Morley  could  do  to  mitigate  the  trou- 
bles of  the  country  and  the  people  he  did 
bravely  and  steadfastly.  Ireland  was  then  the 
victim  of  an  accumulation  of  coercion  laws 
which  made  almost  every  popular  movement, 
every  attempt  to  maintain  an  oppressed  tenant 
against  an  oppressive  landlord,  every  protest 
against  despotic  legislation,  liable  to  be  treated 
as  an  offense  calling  for  the  interference  of 
the  police.  John  Morley  did  all  that  could  be 
done  to  mitigate  the  rigors  of  such  a  system, 
and  to  administer  Ireland  on  something  like 
the  principles  of  civilization  and  freedom.  He 
had  in  this  task  the  full  support,  encourage- 
ment, and  sympathy  of  the  statesman  who  was 
then  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland  —  the  Earl 
of  Aberdeen,  a  man  of  the  most  thoroughly 
Liberal  principles  and  a  sincere  friend  to  Ire- 
land.    But,  of  course,  neither  Lord  Aberdeen 

139 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

nor  John  Morley  could  abolish  at  a  word  of 
command  a  whole  system  of  penal  legislation, 
and  all  that  could  be  done  was  to  take  care 
that  the  laws  should  be  administered  in  a 
temperate  and  reasonable  spirit,  and  that  the 
rulers  of  Ireland  should  show  themselves  to  be 
at  heart  the  friends  of  Ireland. 

There  comes  back  to  my  memory  a  some- 
what curious  illustration  of  the  difficulties 
which  then  stood  in  the  way  of  any  cordial 
intercourse  between  the  representatives  of 
English  rule  in  Ireland  and  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Irish  national  cause,  and  I  cannot 
resist  the  temptation  to  tell  the  story  here. 
During  Morley's  first  term  of  office  as  Chief 
Secretary  I  made  some  visits  to  Dublin.  I 
had  many  meetings  with  Morley,  of  course, 
and  he  invited  me  to  dine  wi.th  him  at  the 
Chief  Secretary's  Lodge  in  Phoenix  Park. 
Now,  there  had  been  during  all  my  time  a 
rigorous  rule  among  Irish  Nationalists  not  to 
accept  any  of  the  hospitalities  of  those  who 
exercised  imperial  authority  in  Dublin.  No 
true  Nationalist  would  make  one  at  any  social 
gathering  in  the  official  residence  of  the  Vice- 
roy or  the  Chief  Secretary.  There  were  more 
than   merely  sentimental    reasons  for  such  a 

140 


JOHN   MORLEY 

principle.  In  former  days  the  Irish  people 
had  in  several  well-remembered  instances  seen 
some  vehement  advocate  of  the  Irish  National 
cause  won  over  by  the  promises  and  the  bland- 
ishments of  Dublin  Castle  to  take  office  under 
the  Government  and  to  renounce  the  political 
faith  the  profession  of  which  had  won  for  him 
his  seat  in  Parliament.  Therefore  it  was  above 
all  things  necessary,  in  order  to  maintain  the 
confidence  of  the  Irish  people,  that  the  national 
representatives  should  show  themselves  deter- 
mined not  to  be  drawn  into  any  familiar  social 
relations  with  the  representatives  of  English 
rule  in  Ireland.  This  was  especially  a  part  of 
Parnell's  policy,  and  on  it  Parnell  laid  much 
stress.  John  Morley  came  over  to  Ireland  in 
a  spirit  of  full  friendship  towards  the  Irish 
people,  and  he  had  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  Irish  people  thoroughly  understood 
his  feelings  and  his  hopes.  He  and  I  had 
known  each  other  during  many  years  in  Lon- 
don, and  when  we  met  in  Dublin,  he,  being 
still  new  to  the  conditions  of  the  place,  invited 
me  to  dine  with  him.  I  explained  to  him  that, 
however  delighted  I  should  be  to  dine  with 
my  friend  John  Morley,  it  was  quite  impossible 
that  I  should  dine  with  the  Chief  Secretary 

141 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

at  his  official  residence  in  Dublin.  I  assured 
him  that  if  I  were  to  accept  such  an  invitation 
the  Tory  papers  of  Dublin  would  be  certain 
to  make  characteristic  comments  on  the  fact 
that  the  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant and  the  Vice-Chairman  of  the  Irish  Par- 
liamentary party  had  been  dining  together  in 
the  Chief  Secretary's  official  home,  and  that 
we  should  both  alike  find  ourselves  the  objects 
of  something  approaching  to  a  public  scandal. 
Morley  was  surprised  at  first  and  then  a  good 
deal  amused,  but  he  accepted  my  explanation, 
and  thoroughly  understood  that  it  was  not  any 
want  of  friendly  feeling  which  led  me  to  decline 
his  invitation.  So  we  parted  as  good  friends 
as  ever.  We  still  met  frequently  and  talked 
over  questions  relating  to  Irish  administration. 
One  day  Morley  came  to  see  me  at  the  Shel- 
burne  Hotel,  which  was  then  my  home  in  Dub- 
lin. We  had  a  long  talk,  and,  as  the  hour  was 
growing  late,  I  asked  him  to  stay  and  dine 
with  me,  not  remembering  at  the  time  that  the 
eye  of  the  public  was  supposed  to  be  on  our 
movements.  One  of  Morley 's  happiest  gifts  is 
a  delightful  sense  of  humor.  He  rose  to  the 
situation  at  once.  Addressing  me  in  solemn 
tones,  but  with  a  gleam  of  the  comic  in  his 

142 


JOHN   MORLEY 

eyes,  he  informed  me  that  if  my  principles  did 
not  allow  me  to  dine  with  the  Chief  Secretary 
in  Dublin,  so  neither  did  the  Chief  Secretary's 
principles  allow  him  to  dine  there  with  me. 
Thus,  as  some  newspaper  writers  would  say, 
the  incident  terminated,  and  we  made  no  fur- 
ther effort  at  convivial  meetings  in  Dublin. 

John  Morley's  quick  sense  of  humor  is  not 
one  of  the  qualities  which  a  stranger  would 
naturally  look  for  in  him.  Those  who  have 
not  met  him  and  have  known  him  only  through 
his  writings  are  apt  to  think  of  him  as  a  grave 
and  even  an  austere  man,  a  man  wholly  im- 
mersed in  the  serious  contemplation  of  life  and 
history,  and,  if  endowed  with  any  sense  of  hu- 
mor, only  with  a  sense  of  its  more  grim  and 
saturnine  aspects.  The  man  himself  is  alto- 
gether and  curiously  unlike  the  impression  thus 
formed  of  him  very  commonly  by  those  to  whom 
he  is  not  personally  known.  John  Morley  has 
a  quick,  keen,  and  delightful  sense  of  humor. 
He  can  talk  on  any  subject  from  grave  to  gay, 
from  lively  to  severe.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
charming  of  companions,  and  he  is  a  great  fa- 
vorite among  women,  even  among  those  who  do 
not  greatly  concern  themselves  with  the  ques- 
tion of  woman's  political  emancipation.    There 

143 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

is  nothing  of  the  stern  philosopher  about  his 
manner  of  comporting  himself  in  social  life. 
Indeed,  for  all  the  clear  composure  of  his  philo- 
sophic contemplations,  he  has  a  temperament 
far  too  quick  and  sensitive  to  allow  of  his  meet- 
ing all  life's  vexatious  questions  in  the  mood  of 
stoical  endurance.  He  is  by  nature  somewhat 
nervous,  is  decidedly  quick  in  temper,  frankly 
acknowledges  that  he  is  rather  impatient  of 
contradiction,  and  is  likely  to  become  over- 
heated in  the  course  of  an  eager  argument.  I 
feel  the  less  hesitation  in  noticing  these  little 
peculiarities  on  the  part  of  my  friend  because  I 
have  heard  Morley  himself  speak  of  them  with 
perfect  frankness  as  some  of  his  troubles  in 
political  controversy.  I  must  say  that,  so  far 
as  I  know,  these  unphilosophical  qualities  of 
Morley's  temperament  only  tend  to  make  him 
all  the  more  a  charming  friend  to  his  friends. 
We  may  admire  the  marble-like  composure  of 
the  stern  philosopher  who  yields  to  no  passing 
human  weaknesses  of  temper,  but  it  must  be 
very  hard  to  keep  always  on  friendly  terms  with 
so  superhuman  a  personage. 

Mr.  Morley  goes  into  society  a  good  deal  in 
London,  is  often  to  be  seen  at  the  theaters  on 
first  nights,  seems  to  enjoy  a  dinner  party  or 

144 


JOHN   MORLEY 

an  evening  party  as  well  as  the  most  common- 
place among  us  might  do,  but  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  has  any  liking  for  great  shows  and 
pompous  celebrations  and  the  other  formal  de- 
monstrations of  Court  festivity  and  Ministerial 
display.  In  his  quiet  London  home  he  leads 
the  life  of  a  man  of  culture,  a  scholar  and  a 
writer,  so  far  as  his  political  and  Parliamentary 
engagements  allow  him  leisure  for  such  recrea- 
tion, and  he  neither  seeks  the  madding  crowd 
nor  shuns  it.  It  has  always  been  a  wonder  to 
me  how  such  a  man  can  find  time  for  his  many 
and  diverse  studies  and  occupations,  and  should 
never  either  neglect  the  work  of  his  life  or  shut 
himself  away  from  its  reasonable  enjoyments. 
John  Morley  is  indeed  a  rare  and  almost  unique 
combination  of  the  philosophical  thinker,  the 
vivid  biographer,  the  Parliamentary  debater, 
and  the  practical  administrator.  His  life  of 
Richard  Cobden  is  one  of  the  most  complete 
and  characteristic  pieces  of  biography  accom- 
plished during  our  time.  There  would  not 
seem  to  have  been  much  that  was  congenial 
between  the  temperament  of  Richard  Cobden 
and  that  of  John  Morley.  Cobden  was  not  a 
laborious  student  of  the  past ;  he  had  no  wide- 
spread and  varied  literary  or   artistic  sympa- 

145 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

thies;  he  did  not  concern  himself  much  with 
any  scientific  studies  except  those  which  have 
to  do  with  the  actual  movements  of  man's  work- 
ing lifetime ;  he  was  a  great  practical  reformer, 
not  a  scholar,  a  philosopher,  or  even  a  devoted 
lover  of  books.  I  do  not  know  that  John  Mor- 
ley  was  personally  well  acquainted  with  Cob- 
den,  and  I  am  rather  inclined  to  believe  that  in 
his  biography  of  the  great  free-trader  he  relied 
mainly  on  Cobden's  correspondence  and  on  the 
information  given  to  him  by  members  of  Cob- 
den's family.  Yet  he  has  created  a  perfect  liv- 
ing picture  of  Cobden  as  Cobden's  friends  all 
knew  him,  and  he  has  shown  to  coming  gener- 
ations, not  merely  what  Cobden  said  and  did, 
what  great  reforms  he  accomplished,  and  what 
further  reforms  he  ever  had  in  view,  but  he  has 
shown  what  Cobden  actually  was,  and  made  the 
man  himself  a  familiar  figure  to  all  who  read 
the  book.  So  far  as  I  can  judge,  he  has 
achieved  the  same  success  when  telling  us  of 
Burke,  of  Voltaire,  and  of  Rousseau,  and  has 
made  us  feel  that  with  his  guidance  we  come 
to  know  the  men  themselves  as  well  as  the 
parts  they  performed  in  politics  or  in  literature. 
Morley  has  for  a  long  time  been  engaged  in 
preparing  his  life  of  Gladstone,  and  the  mind 

146 


JOHN   MORLEY 

of  England,  which  has  lately  been  distracted 
by  the  vicissitudes  of  war,  is  now  free  to  turn 
to  quieter  thoughts,  and  to  look  with  eager  ex- 
pectation for  the  completion  of  the  book.  No 
other  living  man  could  have  anything  like  John 
Morley's  qualifications  as  the  biographer  of 
Gladstone.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  masters 
of  lucid  and  vigorous  English  prose.  He  has 
been  what  I  may  call  a  professional  student  of 
the  lives  of  great  men ;  he  is  a  profound  politi- 
cal thinker ;  and  he  has  the  faculty  of  describ- 
ing to  the  life  and  making  his  subject  live 
again.  In  addition  to  all  these  claims  to  the 
position  of  Gladstone's  authorized  biographer 
comes  the  fact  that  Morley  was  for  many  years 
intrusted  with  Gladstone's  fullest  confidence. 
To  no  one  did  Gladstone  make  his  feelings  and 
his  purposes  on  all  political  questions  more 
fully  known  than  to  John  Morley;  and  I  think 
I  am  justified  in  saying  that  at  more  than  one 
critical  period  in  his  later  political  history  Glad- 
stone chose  Morley  as  his  especial  and,  for  the 
time,  his  only  confidant.  I  can  say  of  my  own 
knowledge  that  in  the  later  years  of  Gladstone's 
active  political  life  there  were  momentous  occa- 
sions when  John  Morley  acted  as  the  one  sole 
medium    of    private    communication    between 

147 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

Gladstone  and  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  party. 
I  know,  too,  how  careful  and  methodical  Mor- 
ley  showed  himself  on  all  such  occasions,  and 
with  what  ample  and  accurate  notes  he  pre- 
served the  exact  record  of  every  day's  inter- 
communications. This  is,  indeed,  one  of 
Morley's  characteristic  peculiarities  —  the  com- 
bination of  exalted  thought  with  the  most  minute 
attention  to  the  very  routine  of  practical  work. 
That  combination  of  qualities  will  display  itself, 
I  feel  quite  certain,  with  complete  success  in 
Morley's  history  of  Gladstone's  life.  John  Mor- 
ley  has  still,  we  may  well  hope,  a  long  political 
career  before  him.  When  the  Liberal  party 
next  comes  into  power,  John  Morley  will  un- 
questionably have  one  of  its  most  commanding 
offices  placed  at  his  disposal.  Meanwhile  he 
has  ample  work  on  hand  even  for  his  energy 
and  perseverance.  He  is  just  finishing  his  life 
of  Gladstone,  and  is  to  take  charge  of  the  mag- 
nificent library  which  belonged  to  the  late  Lord 
Acton,  the  greatest  English  scholar  and  book- 
lover  of  our  time.  Mr.  Carnegie's  gift  of  this 
great  library,  lately  bought  by  him,  to  John 
Morley,  is  an  act  which  does  honor  to  the  intel- 
lect as  well  as  to  the  heart  of  the  generous 
donor.    Whatever  positions,  honors,  or  respon- 

148 


JOHN    MORLEY 

sibilities  maybe  yet  before  John  Morley,  it  may 
be  taken  for  granted  that  he  has  already  won 
for  himself  a  secure  place  in  the  literature  and 
the  political  life  of  his  country,  and  that  his 
name  will  live  in  its  history. 


149 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 


i^ 


Photoirraph  by  Willinii    \ 


IHK    KARL    U\-    ABKKDEEN 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

The  Earl  of  Aberdeen  will  always  be  asso- 
ciated in  my  mind  with  a  most  hopeful  season 
of  our  political  life,  a  season  none  the  less 
cherished  in  memory  and  none  the  less  auspi- 
cious because  its  hopes  were  doomed  to  tempo- 
rary disappointment.  That  bright  season  was 
the  time  when  Mr.  Gladstone  was  endeavoring 
to  carry  out  his  policy  of  Home  Rule  for  Ire- 
land. I  need  hardly  tell  my  American  readers 
that  Gladstone's  policy  was  condemned  to  fail- 
ure, partly  because  of  a  secession  of  Liberals 
who  went  over  to  the  Conservative  ranks  for 
the  purpose  of  opposing  the  measure,  and  then 
because  of  the  attitude  taken  by  the  House  of 
Lords,  who,  thus  encouraged,  rejected  the  bill 
after  it  had  passed  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  season,  therefore,  which  I  am  now  recalling 
to  memory  was  that  which  came  between  Mr. 
Gladstone's  promulgation  of  his  Home  Rule 
policy  and  the  rejection  of  his  second  measure 
of  Home  Rule.     The  interval  was  one  full  of 

153 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

the  brightest  hopes  for  all  true  British  Liberals 
and  all  Irish  Nationalists.  For  the  first  time 
during  my  recollection,  British  Liberalism  and 
Irish  Nationalism  were  in  true  companionship 
and  concord.  We  fraternized  as  English  and 
Irish  politicians  had  probably  never  fraternized 
before.  On  both  sides  we  were  filled  with  the 
fond  belief  that  the  disunion  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  was  soon  to  come  to  an  end,  and 
that  the  true  and  lasting  union  of  the  two 
peoples  would  be  accomplished  by  Gladstone's 
policy  of  giving  to  Ireland  her  national  self- 
government.  It  was  a  season  of  much  festivity 
in  London,  and  the  Irish  Nationalist  members 
of  Parliament  were  welcome  guests  in  all  the 
great  Liberals'  houses.  No  figures  are  more 
thoroughly  associated  in  my  memory  with  that 
time  than  those  of  Lord  Aberdeen  and  his 
gifted  and  noble-minded  wife. 

Lord  Aberdeen  is  the  grandson  of  that  Earl 
of  Aberdeen  whose  coalition  ministry,  a  luck- 
less effort  at  a  temporary  compromise  between 
hostile  political  forces,  came  to  a  disastrous  end 
during  the  Crimean  War.  The  present  Earl 
succeeded  to  the  title  in  1870.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  in 
Scotland,  and  afterwards  at  University  College, 

154 


THE    EARL    OF   ABERDEEN 

Oxford.  Lord  Aberdeen  was  a  Conservative 
in  his  political  principles  when  he  entered  the 
House  of  Lords.  But  he  had  too  much  intellect 
and  too  much  independence  of  mind  to  remain 
long  in  subserviency  to  the  traditional  creed  of 
a  mere  party.  He  differed  from  his  leaders  on 
several  important  questions  before  he  had  fully 
seen  his  way  to  take  up  his  position  as  a 
recognized  member  of  the  Liberal  organiza- 
tion. Most  of  us  who  had  followed  his  career 
thus  far  with  any  attention  felt  sure  that  the 
Conservatives  would  not  long  be  able  to  keep 
such  a  man  among  their  slow-going  and  unen- 
lightened ranks,  and  no  surprise  was  felt  on 
either  side  when  he  took  his  natural  place  as 
a  follower  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  Lord  Aberdeen 
became  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  Home  Rule 
policy,  and  all  the  noble  influence  that  he 
and  his  wife  could  bring  to  bear  publicly  and 
privately  was  exerted  in  support  of  the  cause. 
Then  it  was  that  I  first  came  to  know  Lord 
and  Lady  Aberdeen.  I  have  before  me  just 
now  a  book  called  "  Notables  of  Britain,"  de- 
scribed on  its  title-page  as  "  An  Album  of 
Portraits  and  Autographs  of  the  Most  Eminent 
Subjects  of  Her  Majesty  in  the  Sixtieth  Year 
of  Her  Reign."     This  book  was  published  at 

155 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

the  office  of  the  "  Review  of  Reviews,"  and  was 
understood  to  be  the  production  of  Mr.  W.  T. 
Stead.  It  contains  an  excellent  full-length 
photograph  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  who,  I  may  say, 
has  a  face  and  figure  well  worthy  to  be  pre- 
served by  painter  and  photographer  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  in  coming  days  are  inter- 
ested in  the  notables  of  Britain.  The  portrait, 
like  all  the  other  portraits  in  the  volume,  is 
accompanied  by  an  autograph  line  or  two. 
Lord  Aberdeen's  written  words  seem  to  me 
peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  writer's  bright 
and  hopeful  spirit.  I  quote  his  words  —  the 
writing  is  clear  and  well  formed  :  — 

I  think  this  is  a  good  motto : 
"  Transeunt  nubcs  —  manet  caelum." 

Aberdeen. 

The  temper  in  which  Lord  Aberdeen  con- 
ducted all  his  political  intercourse  during  this 
period  of  promise  was  one  of  unchanging  cour- 
age and  hopefulness.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
active  and  ready  among  the  supporters  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  and  he  found  an  untiring  and  invalu- 
able companion  in  his  charming  wife.  At  that 
time  we  used  to  hold  political  gatherings  in 
private  houses  as  well  as  in  public  halls,  and  I 
have  taken  part  in  more  than  one  Home  Rule 

156 


THE   EARL    OF   ABERDEEN 

demonstration  held  in  the  private  dwellings  of 
some  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  colleagues  in  office. 
We  used  to  have  many  social  meetings  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  Englishmen  and  Irishmen 
into  close  association.  Even  Parnell  himself 
was  prevailed  upon  to  abandon  for  the  time  his 
rule  of  seclusion  from  society,  and  to  meet  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  Lord  Spencer  and  other  leading 
Englishmen  at  private  dinner  parties.  Lord 
Aberdeen  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
and  one  of  the  most  attractive  figures  in  these 
political  and  social  gatherings,  and  I  could  not, 
indeed,  recall  that  period  to  memory  for  a  mo- 
ment without  finding  his  figure  photographed 
prominently  in  it.  It  was  an  interesting  sight 
during  all  that  time  to  see  some  of  the  most 
extreme  and  most  aggressive  members  of  the 
Irish  Parliamentary  party  mingling  in  social  life 
with  British  peers  and  magnates  who  only  a 
few  years  before  would  probably  have  regarded 
those  Irish  members  as  traitors  to  the  Queen 
and  fitting  inmates  of  the  prison  cell.  On  the 
other  hand,  too,  it  must  be  said  that  only  a  very 
few  years  before  the  Irish  Nationalist  member 
who  was  known  to  make  his  appearance  in  the 
London  drawing-rooms  of  English  aristocracy 
would  have  been  set  down  by  the  majority  of 

157 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

his  countrymen  as  a  flunkey  in  spirit  and  a 
traitor  to  his  cause.  There  was  a  time  not 
long  before  when  an  Irish  Nationalist  member 
would  have  needed  some  courage  to  enable 
him  to  meet  his  constituents  on  election  day 
if  the  local  papers  had  made  it  known  that 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  showing  himself  in 
the  drawing-rooms  of  English  peers.  All  this 
sudden  and  complete  change  had  been  brought 
about  by  the  genius  and  policy  of  Gladstone 
when  he  came  to  see  the  true  meaning  and  the 
true  claims  of  the  demand  for  Irish  Home 
Rule.  My  memory  goes  back  with  a  some- 
what melancholy  pleasure  to  those  days  of 
hope  and  confidence  when  the  true  union  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  seemed  actually  on 
the  verge  of  consummation.  Nor  have  I  the 
slightest  doubt  that  the  lessons  taught  during 
that  season  will  have  their  full  influence  once 
again  when  the  period  of  reaction  is  over,  and 
that  Gladstone's  policy  of  1886  will  come  to  life 
again  before  very  long  and  will  accomplish  its 
work  once  for  all. 

In  that  year,  1886,  Gladstone  appointed  Lord 
Aberdeen  to  the  oflice  of  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
Ireland.  The  position  was  given  to  Lord  Aber- 
deen with  the  frankly  proclaimed  purpose  that 

158 


THE   EARL   OF  ABERDEEN 

he  was  to  be  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  a  Home 
Rule  policy,  and,  indeed,  on  no  other  condi- 
tions would  Lord  Aberdeen  have  consented  to 
accept  the  office.  Lord  Aberdeen's  short  term 
of  rule  in  Ireland  was  a  complete  success. 
There  was  not  much  that  the  most  Liberal 
Lord-Lieutenant  could  do  in  the  way  of  posi- 
tive administration  for  the  benefit  of  the  island. 
There  was  already  in  existence  a  whole  code  of 
repressive  legislation  compiled  during  successive 
ages  of  despotic  government,  and  this  existing 
code  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  Lord  Aberdeen 
or  any  other  Viceroy  to  abolish  or  even  to 
modify.  All  that  the  new  Lord-Lieutenant 
could  do  in  the  way  of  political  relief  to  the 
Irish  people  was  to  discourage  as  much  as 
possible  the  too  frequent  application  of  the 
coercive  laws  and  to  make  it  known  that  the 
sympathies  of  the  new  Government  were  in 
favor  of  political  freedom  for  Ireland,  as  well 
as  for  England  and  Scotland.  Lord  Aberdeen 
fulfilled  this  part  of  his  public  duty  with  a 
brave  heart  and  with  all  the  success  possible  to 
the  task.  Every  one  who  had  any  acquaintance 
with  the  state  of  Ireland  at  the  time  must  have 
known  what  difficulties  were  likely  to  be  set  in 
the  way  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  endeavor  to  miti- 

159 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

gate  the  seventies  of  the  coercion  system.  The 
most  serious  of  those  difficulties  would  in  all 
probability  have  come  from  the  permanent  offi- 
cial staff  in  Dublin  Castle.  American  readers 
in  general  can  have  but  little  idea  as  to  the 
peculiarities  of  that  singular  institution  Dublin 
Castle,  the  center  and  fortress  of  Irish  govern- 
ment. It  has  become,  from  generations  of 
usage,  a  very  bulwark  against  the  progress  of 
Irish  national  sentiment.  The  fresh  current 
of  feeling  from  the  outside  seems  to  make  little 
impression  on  its  stagnant  and  moldy  atmos- 
phere. It  is  ruled  by  tradition,  and  to  that 
tradition  belongs  the  rule  of  hostility  to  every 
popular  feeling  and  every  national  demand. 
Lord  Aberdeen  had  to  encounter  all  the  resist- 
ance which  the  dead  weight  of  Dublin  Castle's 
antiquated  systems  could  bring  to  bear  against 
his  liberal  and  enlightened  efforts  at  the  pacifi- 
cation of  the  country.  He  carried  out  his 
purpose  with  unffinching  resolve  and  unruffled 
temper,  and,  so  far  as  the  existing  laws  allowed 
him,  he  mitigated  the  harshnesses  of  the  system 
under  which  Ireland  had  been  governed  since 
the  Act  of  Union.  But  there  was,  of  course, 
much  more  within  Lord  Aberdeen's  capacity  to 
accomplish  than  the  mere  mitigation  of  exist- 

i6o 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

ing  laws  which  it  was  not  in  his  power  to 
abolish.  His  presence  and  the  entire  conduct 
of  his  viceroyalty  were  as  a  proclamation  to  the 
Irish  people  that  the  whole  sympathies  of  the 
Gladstone  Government  went  with  the  national 
demands. 

Then,  indeed,  a  strange  sight  was  to  be  seen 
in  Dublin  —  the  sight  of  a  thoroughly  popular 
welcome,  a  national  welcome,  given  to  the  re- 
presentative of  English  rule  in  Ireland.  A  new 
chapter  in  Irish  history  seemed  to  open,  and 
the  heart  of  Ireland  was  filled  with  hope.  It 
is  told  of  Swift  that  when  Carteret,  Earl  Gran- 
ville, was  appointed  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland 
—  Swift  afterwards  became  one  of  Granville's 
close  friends  —  he  exclaimed  in  his  sarcastic 
fashion  that  he  could  not  understand  why  such 
a  man  should  be  appointed  to  such  an  office, 
and  he  thought  the  Government  ought  to  keep 
on  sending  its  bullies  and  blockheads  just  as 
before.  A  satirical  Nationalist  might  have  been 
expected  to  break  forth  into  a  similar  expres- 
sion of  wonder  when  a  man  like  Lord  Aber- 
deen was  sent  to  Ireland  to  carry  on  the  rule 
of  Dublin  Castle.  Lord  Aberdeen  and  his  wife 
made  themselves  popular  everywhere  among 
the  Irish  people,  showed  a  living  and  a  con- 

161 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

stant  interest  in  everything  that  concerned  the 
welfare  of  the  population,  and  did  all  they  could 
to  break  down  the  long-existing  barricades 
which  made  England  and  Ireland  hostile  na- 
tions. When  Mr.  Gladstone  failed  in  carrying 
his  Home  Rule  Bill  through  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  his  Government  came  to  an  end,  Lord 
Aberdeen  took  his  leave  of  Ireland  amid  demon- 
strations of  popular  regard,  affection,  and  regret 
which  must  have  deeply  touched  his  generous 
heart.  In  1893,  when  the  Liberals  were  again 
in  power,  Lord  Aberdeen  was  made  Governor- 
General  of  Canada,  and  he  held  that  position 
until  1898.  His  term  of  service  in  Canada 
was  as  successful  as  might  have  been  expected, 
and  the  French  as  well  as  the  other  provinces 
looked  up  to  him  with  admiration  and  grati- 
tude. Then,  for  the  time,  his  ofificial  career 
came  to  an  end.  In  the  interval  between  the 
Irish  and  the  Canadian  appointment  Lord  Aber- 
deen and  his  wife  made  a  tour  round  the  world, 
visiting  on  their  way  India  and  most  of  the 
British  colonies.  The  name  of  Lady  Aberdeen 
is  associated  with  all  great  movements  which 
have  to  do  with  the  education  and  the  general 
advancement  of  women,  and  with  many  good 
works  undertaken  for  the  benefit  of  the  Irish 

162 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

peasantry.  Lady  Aberdeen,  it  should  be  said, 
is  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  first  Lord 
Tweedmouth,  and  is  sister  of  the  Lord  Tweed- 
mouth  who,  as  Edward  Marjoribanks,  was  so 
well  known  for  a  long  time  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ing Whips  of  the  Liberal  party.  Lady  Aber- 
deen's name  is  Ishbel  Maria,  and  I  may  ask  my 
American  readers  not  to  make  the  mistake, 
sometimes  made  even  in  England,  of  assuming 
her  name  to  be  the  more  familiar  one  of  Isabel. 
She  has  always  been  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent, influential,  and  graceful  figures  in  Eng- 
lish society,  and  every  charitable  association 
which  deserves  her  support  has  the  advantage 
of  her  help,  her  protection,  and  her  guidance. 
I  know  from  my  own  experience  what  valu- 
able and  untiring  service  she  has  given  to  the 
promotion  of  the  lace-making  and  the  cottage 
industries  of  Ireland.  I  had  the  great  honor 
of  being  associated  with  her  in  some  of  these 
efforts,  and  I  never  can  forget  her  unsparing 
devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  every  such 
effort.  I  have  among  my  books  a  series  of 
large  and  handsome  volumes  devoted  to  a  re- 
cord of  the  proceedings  which  took  place  at  the 
International  Council  of  Women  held  in  Lon- 
don during  July  of  1899  and  presided  over  by 

163 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

the  Countess  of  Aberdeen.  This  series,  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Fisher  Unwin,  is  edited  by  Lady 
Aberdeen  and  has  an  introduction  written  by 
her.  I  may  quote  the  closing  paragraph  of  the 
introduction  :  — 

It  is  a  great  inspiration  to  be  bound  together  in  the 
pursuance  of  high  ideals ;  it  is  also  a  grave  responsibility 
—  and  during  our  recent  Council  meeting  both  these 
thoughts  have  been  made  very  real  to  us.  I  pray  God 
that  they  may  abide  within  the  hearts  of  all  who,  in  every 
country,  are  the  guardians  of  the  honor  of  our  Council,  so 
that  it  may  prove  true  to  the  lofty  profession  it  has  made. 

The  series  contains  seven  volumes,  every  one 
of  which  has  been  carefully  edited  by  Lady 
Aberdeen,  and  is  enriched  with  many  commen- 
taries of  her  own.  One  can  easily  imagine  the 
amount  of  time  and  trouble  which  such  a  work 
must  have  imposed  on  a  busy  woman,  and 
those  who  know  anything  of  her  will  know  the 
thought  and  care  and  devotion  which  she  must 
have  given  to  such  a  labor  of  love. 

Not  a  few  persons  are  still  apt  to  associate 
the  idea  of  a  woman  advocating  the  advance- 
ment of  women  with  something  unfeminine, 
ungracious,  self-assertive,  and  overbearing. 
When  Lady  Aberdeen  first  began  to  be  known 
in  social  movements,  the  memory  of  the  late 

164 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

Mrs.  Lynn  Linton's  diatribes  about "  the  Shriek- 
ing Sisterhood "  was  still  fresh  in  the  public 
mind,  and  much  prejudice  yet  lingered  against 
the  women  who  publicly  devoted  themselves 
to  the  advancement  of  their  sex.  Lady  Aber- 
deen might  have  seemed  as  if  she  were  specially 
created  to  be  a  living  refutation  of  all  such 
absurd  ideas.  No  fashionable  woman  given  up 
to  social  success  and  distinction  in  drawing- 
rooms,  dining-rooms,  balls,  and  Court  ceremo- 
nials could  have  been  more  feminine,  graceful, 
and  charming  in  her  ways  and  her  demeanor 
than  this  noble-hearted  woman,  who  was  not 
afraid  to  advocate  the  genuine  rights  of  women, 
and  who  stood  by  her  husband's  side  in  all  his 
efforts  for  political  reform.  One  might  adopt 
the  words  which  Sheridan  has  made  the  open- 
ing of  a  song  in  "  The  Duenna,"  and  proclaim 
that  a  pair  was  never  seen  more  justly  formed 
to  meet  by  nature  than  Lord  and  Lady  Aber- 
deen. Such  an  impression  was  assuredly  formed 
in  Ireland  and  in  Canada,  and  indeed  in  every 
place  where  Lord  and  Lady  Aberdeen  were 
able  to  assert  their  unostentatious  and  most 
beneficent  influence. 

Lord  Aberdeen  succeeded  to  the  title  and  its 
responsibilities  at  too  early  an  age  to  allow  him 

165 


BRITISH    POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

any  opportunity  of  proving  his  capacity  for  Par- 
liamentary life  in  the  House  of  Commons.  His 
elder  brother  was  drowned  on  a  voyage  from 
Boston  to  Melbourne,  and  the  subject  of  this 
article  then  became  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  with,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  a  seat  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  There  is  nothing  like  a  real  Parliamen- 
tary career  to  be  found  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
A  man  of  great  natural  gifts  can,  of  course, 
give  evidence  even  there  that  he  is  born  for 
statesmanship  and  can  command  attention  by 
his  eloquence.  Lord  Aberdeen  made  it  cer- 
tain even  in  the  House  of  Lords  that  he  was 
endowed  with  these  rare  qualifications.  But 
the  House  of  Lords  has  no  influence  over  the 
country,  unless,  indeed,  when  it  exerts  itself  to 
stay  for  the  time  the  progress  of  some  great  and 
popular  measure.  Even  this  is  only  for  the 
time,  and  if  the  measure  be  really  one  of  na- 
tional benefit  and  deserving  of  public  support, 
it  is  sure  to  be  carried  in  the  end,  and  the 
Lords  have  to  give  in  and  to  put  up  with  their 
defeat.  But  the  hereditary  chamber  is  not  even 
a  commanding  platform  from  which  an  elo- 
quent speaker  can  address  and  can  influence 
the  whole  country,  and  the  temptations  there 
to  apathy  and  indolence  must  often  be  found 

i66 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

to  be  almost  irresistible.  On  rare  occasions, 
two  or  three  times  in  a  session,  perhaps,  there 
comes  off  what  is  popularly  called  a  full-dress 
debate,  and  then  the  red  benches  of  the  House, 
on  which  the  peers  have  their  seats,  are  sure 
to  be  crowded,  and  the  galleries  where  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons  are  entitled  to 
sit  and  the  galleries  allotted  to  strangers  are 
also  well  occupied.  The  Lords  have  even  the 
inspiriting  advantage,  denied  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  of  open  galleries  where  ladies  can 
sit  in  the  full  glare  of  day  or  of  gaslight,  and 
can  encourage  an  orator  by  their  presence  and 
their  attention.  In  the  House  of  Commons,  as 
everybody  knows,  the  small  number  of  ladies 
for  whom  seats  are  provided  are  secreted  behind 
a  thick  grating,  and  thus  become  an  almost 
invisible  influence,  if,  indeed,  they  can  hope  to 
be  an  influence  at  all.  Yet  even  this  inspira- 
tion does  not  stir  the  peers  to  anything  more 
than  the  rarest  attempts  at  a  great  debate.  On 
ordinary  occasions  —  and  these  ordinary  occa- 
sions constitute  nearly  the  whole  of  a  session 
—  the  peers  sit  for  only  an  hour  or  so  every 
day,  and  then  mutter  and  mumble  through 
some  formal  business,  and  the  outer  public 
does  not  manifest  the  slightest  interest  in  what 

167 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

they  are  doing  or  trying  to  do.  There  are 
many  men  now  in  the  House  of  Lords  who 
proved  their  eloquence  again  and  again  during 
some  of  the  most  important  and  exciting  de- 
bates in  the  representative  chamber,  and  who 
now  hardly  open  their  lips  in  the  gilded  cham- 
ber, as  the  House  of  Lords  has  been  grandilo- 
quently titled.  A  rising  member  of  the  House 
of  Commons  succeeds  to  the  family  title  and 
estates,  and  as  a  matter  of  course  he  is  trans- 
ferred to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  there,  in 
most  cases,  is  an  end  to  his  public  career.  Or 
perhaps  a  rising  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons has  in  some  way  or  other  made  himself 
inconvenient  to  his  leading  colleagues  who 
have  now  come  into  power  and  are  forming 
an  administration,  and  as  they  do  not  know 
how  to  get  rid  of  him  gracefully  in  any  other 
way,  they  induce  the  Sovereign  to  confer  on 
him  a  peerage,  and  so  he  straightway  goes 
into  the  House  of  Lords.  Perhaps,  as  he  had 
been  an  active  and  conspicuous  debater  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  cannot  bring  himself 
to  settle  down  into  silence  when  he  finds  him- 
self among  the  peers.  So  he  delivers  a  speech 
every  now  and  then  on  what  are  convention- 
ally regarded  in  the  House  of  Lords  as  great 

i68 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

occasions,  but  his  career  is  practically  at  an 
end  all  the  same.  I  have  in  my  mind  some 
striking  instances  of  this  curious  transition 
from  Parliamentary  prominence  in  the  House 
of  Commons  to  Parliamentary  nothingness  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  I  know  of  men  who 
were  accounted  powerful  and  brilliant  debaters 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  where  debates  are 
sometimes  great  events,  who,  when,  from  one 
cause  or  other,  translated  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  were  hardly  ever  heard  of  as  debaters 
any  more.  Probably  there  seemed  no  motive 
for  taking  the  trouble  to  seek  the  opportunity 
of  delivering  a  speech  in  the  hereditary  assem- 
bly, where  nothing  particular  could  come  of 
the  speech  when  delivered,  and  the  new  peer 
allows  the  charms  of  public  speaking  to  lose 
their  hold  over  him,  to  pass  with  the  days  and 
the  dreams  of  his  youth. 

Lord  Aberdeen  would  in  all  probability  have 
made  a  deep  mark  as  a  Parliamentary  debater 
if  the  kindly  fates  had  left  to  him  the  possi- 
bility of  a  career  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  has  a  fine  voice,  an  attractive  presence, 
and  a  fluent  delivery ;  he  has  high  intellectual 
capacity,  wide  and  varied  .  culture,  and  much 
acquaintance  with  foreign  States  and  peoples. 

169 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

Probably  the  best  services  which  Lord  Aber- 
deen could  render  to  his  country  would  be 
found  in  such  offices  as  Ireland  and  Canada 
gave  him  an  opportunity  of  undertaking  ;  vice- 
royalty  of  some  order,  it  would  seem,  must  be 
the  main  business  of  his  career.  But  I  must 
say  that  I  should  much  like  to  see  his  great 
intellectual  qualities,  his  varied  experience,  and 
his  noble  humanitarian  sympathies  provided 
with  some  opportunity  of  exercising  themselves 
in  the  work  of  domestic  government.  I  may 
explain  that  I  do  not  call  the  administration  of 
Ireland  under  the  old  conditions  a  work  of 
domestic  government  in  the  true  sense.  The 
vice-regal  system  in  Ireland  is  a  barbaric  ana- 
chronism, and  the  abilities  and  high  purposes 
of  a  man  like  Lord  Aberdeen  were  wholly 
thrown  away  upon  such  work.  There  is  much 
still  in  the  social  condition  of  England  which 
could  give  ample  occupation  to  the  adminis- 
trative abilities  and  the  philanthropic  energies 
of  Lord  Aberdeen.  The  work  of  decentral- 
ization in  England  is  rapidly  going  on.  The 
development  of  local  self-government  is  be- 
coming one  of  the  most  remarkable  phenom- 
ena of  our  times.  Parliament  is  becoming 
more  and  more  the  fount  and  origin  of  na- 

170 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

tional  rule,  but  it  is  wisely  devoting  its  energies 
to  the  creation  of  a  system  which  shall  leave 
the  working  out  of  that  national  rule  more  and 
more  to  localities  and  municipalities.  At  one 
time,  and  that  not  very  long  ago,  it  was  be- 
lieved even  by  many  social  reformers  that,  while 
self-government  might  easily  be  developed  in 
the  cities  and  towns,  it  would  not  be  possible, 
during  the  present  generation  at  least,  to  infuse 
any  such  principle  of  vitality  into  the  country 
districts. 

Of  late  years,  however,  it  is  becoming  more 
and  more  apparent  that  the  principle  of  local 
government  is  developing  itself  rapidly  and 
effectively  in  the  rural  districts,  and  that  the 
good  old  times  when  the  squire  and  the  rector 
could  manage  by  divided  despotism  the  whole 
business  of  a  parish  are  destined  soon  to  be- 
come a  curious  historical  memory.  The  sys- 
tem of  national  education,  established  for  the 
first  time  in  England  by  Gladstone's  Govern- 
ment in  1870,  has  naturally  had  much  to  do 
with  the  quickening  of  intelligent  activity  all 
over  the  British  Islands.  A  new  generation  has 
grown  up,  in  which  localities  are  no  longer  con- 
tent to  have  all  their  business  managed  for 
them  by  their  local  magnates,  and  the  recent 

171 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

statutes  passed  by  Parliament  for  the  extension 
everywhere  of  the  local  government  principle 
are  a  direct  result  of  the  legislation  which  has 
made  education  compulsory  in  these  countries. 
All  over  the  agricultural  districts  we  now  find 
county  boards  and  parish  councils  conducting 
by  debates  and  divisions  the  common  business 
of  each  district,  just  as  it  is  done  in  the  great 
cities  and  towns.  It  seems  to  me  that  this 
spread  of  the  principle  of  local  self-government 
opens  a  most  appropriate  field  for  the  intellect 
and  the  energies  of  such  statesmen  as  Lord 
Aberdeen.  Only  in  recent  times  have  great 
noblemen  condescended  to  trouble  themselves 
much,  so  far  at  least  as  their  Parliamentary  ca- 
reers were  concerned,  with  municipal  or  other 
local  affairs.  A  peer,  if  he  happened  to  have 
any  taste  or  gift  for  Parliamentary  and  ofhcial 
work,  was  willing  to  become  Foreign  Secretary, 
Viceroy  of  India,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland, 
or  Governor  of  a  Colony.  Not  infrequently, 
too,  he  consented  to  devote  his  energies  to 
the  of^ce  of  Postmaster-General.  But  he  was 
not  likely  to  see  any  scope  for  a  Parliamentary 
career  in  the  management  of  local  business. 
In  his  own  particular  district,  no  doubt,  he  was 
accustomed  to  direct  most  of  the  business  in 

172 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

his  own  way  and  might  be  a  local  benefactor 
or  a  local  mis-manager,  according  as  his  tastes 
and  judgment  qualified  him.  But  the  general 
business  of  localities  did  not  create  any  Par- 
liamentary department  which  seemed  likely  to 
deserve  his  attention.  The  condition  of  things 
is  very  different  now,  and  Lord  Aberdeen  is 
one  of  the  men  to  whom  the  country  is  mainly 
indebted  for  that  quickening  and  outspreading 
of  the  local  self-governing  principle  which  is 
so  remarkable  and  so  hopeful  a  phenomenon 
of  our  national  existence  at  present.  In  every 
movement  which  pretends  to  the  development 
and  the  strengthening  of  that  principle  Lord 
Aberdeen  has  always  taken  a  foremost  part. 

I  am  not  myself  an  unqualified  admirer  of 
that  part  of  the  British  constitutional  system 
which  makes  the  House  of  Lords  one  of  three 
great  ruling  powers.  I  should  very  much  doubt 
whether  Lord  Aberdeen  himself,  if  he  were 
set  to  devise  a  constitutional  system  for  these 
countries,  would  make  the  House  of  Lords  as 
at  present  arranged  a  component  part  of  our 
legislative  system.  But  I  am  quite  willing  to 
admit  that,  since  we  have  a  House  of  Lords 
and  while  we  have  a  House  of  Lords,  a  man 
like  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen  does  all  that  can  be 

173 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

done  to  turn  the  existing  constitution  to  good 
account  and  make  it  in  some  degree  worthy 
of  national  toleration.     While  there  exists  an 
aristocracy  of  birth,  even  the  most  uncompro- 
mising advocate  of  democracy  and  the  equal 
rights  of  men  might  freely  admit  that  a  ca- 
reer like  the  political  and  social  career  of  Lord 
Aberdeen  does   much  to  plead  in  defense  of 
the  system.    Lord  Aberdeen  has  always  proved 
that  he  thoroughly  understands  the  responsi- 
bilities as  well  as  the  advantages  of  his  high 
position.     Not  one  of  the  Labor  Members,  as 
they  are  called,  of   the   House    of    Commons 
—  the  chosen  representatives  of  the  working 
classes  —  could  have  shown  a  deeper  and  more 
constant    sympathy   with    every   measure   and 
every  movement  which  tends  to  improve  the 
condition    and    expand    the    opportunities    of 
those  who  have   to   make  a  living  by  actual 
toil.     Lord  Aberdeen  has  yet,  I  trust,  a  long 
and   fruitful    career   before    him.    The   states- 
manship of  England  will  soon  again  have  to 
turn    its    attention    to    the    social    movements 
which  concern  the  interests  of  the  lowly-born 
and  the  hard-working  in  these  islands.     If  a 
better   time   is   coming  for   the   statesmen  of 
England,  whether  in  office  or  in  opposition, 

174 


THE   EARL   OF   ABERDEEN 

who  love  peace  and  who  yearn  to  take  a  part 
in  measures  which  lead  to  genuine  national 
prosperity,  we  may  safely  assume  that  in  such 
a  time  Lord  Aberdeen  will  renew  his  active 
career,  to  the  benefit  of  the  people  whom  he 
has  served  so  faithfully  and  so  well. 


175 


JOHN   BURNS 


Photograph  coinri-Ht  bv  \V.  &  I).  l)c.win-v 


JOHX    BURNS 


JOHN   BURNS 

John  Burns  stands  out  a  distinct  and  pecu- 
liar figure  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  is 
the  foremost  representative  of  that  working 
class  which  is  becoming  so  great  a  power  in 
the  organization  of  English  political  and  indus- 
trial life.  "  Be  not  like  dumb  driven  cattle," 
says  Longfellow  in  his  often-quoted  lines  — 
"  Be  a  hero  in  the  strife."  The  British  work- 
ingmen  were  until  very  lately  little  better  than 
dumb  driven  cattle;  in  our  days  and  under 
such  leadership  as  that  of  John  Burns  they  have 
proved  themselves  capable  of  bearing  heroic 
part  in  the  struggle  for  great  reforms.  I  can 
remember  the  time  when  the  House  of  Com- 
mons had  not  in  it  any  member  actually  belong- 
ing to  the  working  classes.  At  that  time  the 
working  classes  had  no  means  of  obtaining 
Parliamentary  representation,  for  it  may  be  said 
with  almost  literal  exactness  that  no  working- 
man  had  a  vote,  or  the  means  of  obtaining  a 
vote,  at  a  Parliamentary  election.     The  condi- 

179 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

tions  of  the  franchise  were  too  limited  in  the 
constituencies  to  enable  men  who  worked  for 
small  daily  or  weekly  wages  to  become  voters 
at  elections.  In  order  to  become  a  voter  a  man 
must  occupy  a  house  rated  at  a  certain  yearly 
amount,  and  he  must  have  occupied  it  for  a 
specified  and  considerable  space  of  time,  and 
there  were  very  few  indeed  of  the  working  class 
who  could  hope  to  obtain  such  legal  qualifica- 
tions. In  more  recent  days  the  great  reformers 
of  these  islands  have  succeeded  in  establishing 
what  may  be  fairly  described  as  manhood  suf- 
frage in  these  countries,  and  have  also  secured 
a  lodger  franchise ;  have  established  the  secret 
ballot  as  the  process  of  voting ;  and  by  these 
and  other  reforms  have  put  the  workingman  on 
a  level  with  his  fellow-citizens  as  a  voter  at 
Parliamentary  elections.  My  own  recollection 
goes  back  to  the  time  when  the  law  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  insisted  on  what  was  called 
a  "  property  qualification  "  as  an  indispensable 
condition  to  a  candidate's  obtaining  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  I  have  known  scores 
of  instances  in  which  clever  and  popular  can- 
didates got  over  this  difficulty  by  prevailing  on 
some  wealthy  relative  or  friend  to  settle  legally 
on  them  an  amount  of  landed  property  neces- 

i8o 


JOHN   BURNS 

sary  to  qualify  them  for  a  seat  in  the  House. 
It  was  perfectly  well  known  to  every  one  that 
this  settlement  was  purely  a  formal  arrange- 
ment, and  that  the  new  and  nominal  possessor 
of  the  property  was  no  more  its  real  owner 
than  the  child  who  is  allowed  for  a  moment  to 
hold  his  father's  watch  in  his  hand  becomes 
thereby  the  legal  owner  of  the  valuable  time- 
piece. In  our  days  no  property  qualification 
of  any  kind  is  needed  either  for  a  vote  at  a 
Parliamentary  election  or  for  a  seat  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  therefore  the  work- 
ingmen  form  an  important  proportion  of  the 
voters  at  Parliamentary  elections  and  are  en- 
abled in  certain  constituencies  to  choose  men 
of  their  own  class  to  represent  them  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

I  have  thought  it  well  to  make  the  short 
explanation  of  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  condition  of  the  British  working- 
men  during  recent  years  as  a  prelude  to  what 
I  have  to  say  concerning  that  foremost  of  Brit- 
ish workingmen,  John  Burns.  It  is  only  fair 
to  say  that  the  workingmen  of  these  countries 
have  made  judicious  and  praiseworthy  use  of 
the  new  political  powers  confided  to  them,  and 
have   almost  invariably  sent   into    Parliament 

i8i 


BRITISH  POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

as  the  representatives  of  their  class  men  of  un- 
doubted ability  and  of  the  highest  character, 
men  who  win  the  respect  of  all  parties  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Of  these  men  John 
Burns  is  the  most  conspicuous.  He  has  never, 
indeed,  held  a  place  in  an  administration,  as 
two,  I  think,  of  his  order  have  already  done ; 
but  then  John  Burns  is  a  man  of  resolutely 
independent  character,  and  it  would  not  be 
easy  thus  far  to  form  even  a  Liberal  Govern- 
ment which  should  be  quite  up  to  the  level  of 
his  views  on  many  questions  of  domestic  and 
foreign  policy. 

John  Burns  would  liardly  be  taken  person- 
ally as  a  typical  representative  of  the  British 
workingman.  He  is  short  in  stature,  very  dark 
in  complexion  and  in  the  color  of  his  hair,  and 
a  stranger  seeing  him  for  the  first  time  might 
take  him  for  an  Italian  or  a  Spaniard.  His 
physical  strength  is  something  enormous,  and 
I  have  seen  him  perform  with  the  greatest 
apparent  ease  some  feats  of  athletic  vigor  which 
might  have  seemed  to  demand  the  proportions 
of  a  giant.  His  whole  frame  is  made  up  of 
bone  and  muscle,  and  although  he  is  broadly 
and  stoutly  built,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
any  superfluous  flesh.     If  I  had  to  make  my 

182 


JOHN    BURNS 

way  through  a  furious  opposing  crowd,  I  do 
not  know  of  any  leader  whom  I  should  be  more 
glad  to  follow  than  John  Burns.  But  although 
Burns  is  physically  made  for  a  fighting  man, 
there  is  nothing  pugnacious  or  aggressive  in 
his  temperament.  He  is  by  nature  kind,  con- 
ciliatory, and  generous,  tolerant  of  other  men's 
opinions,  and  only  anxious  to  advance  his  own 
by  fair  argument  and  manly  appeals  to  men's 
sense  of  humanity  and  justice.  I  have  seen 
him  carry  a  great  big  elderly  man  who  had 
fainted  at  a  public  meeting  and  take  him  to  a 
quiet  spot  with  all  the  ease  and  tenderness  of 
a  mother  carrying  her  child.  But  if  I  were  an 
overbearing  giant  who  was  trying  his  strength 
upon  a  weaker  mortal,  I  should  take  good  care 
not  to  make  the  experiment  while  John  Burns 
was  anywhere  within  reach.  He  is  an  adept 
at  all  sorts  of  athletic  sports  and  games,  skat- 
ing, rowing,  foot-racing,  boxing,  cricket,  and  I 
know  not  what  else.  He  is  essentially  a  man 
of  the  working  class,  and  has,  I  believe,  some 
Scottish  blood  in  his  veins,  but  he  is  a  Londoner 
by  birth,  and  passed  all  his  early  life  in  a  Lon- 
don district.  He  was  born  to  poverty,  and 
received  such  education  as  he  had  to  begin 


183 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

with  at  a  humble  school  in  the  Battersea  region 
on  the  south  side  of  London. 

Now,  I  should  think  that  a  boy  born  in 
humble  life  who  had  in  him  any  gift  of  imagi- 
nation and  any  faculty  for  self-improvement 
could  hardly  have  begun  life  in  a  better  place 
than  Battersea.  The  Battersea  region  lies  south 
of  the  Thames,  and  is  a  strange  combination  of 
modern  squalidness  and  picturesque  historical 
associations  and  memorials.  The  homes  of  the 
working  class  poor  stand  under  the  very  shadow 
of  that  famous  church  in  Old  Battersea  where 
Bolingbroke,  the  high-born,  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  orators  known  to  English  Parliamen- 
tary life,  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant  writers 
who  adorn  English  literature,  lies  buried,  and 
where  strangers  from  all  parts  of  the  world  go 
to  gaze  upon  his  tombstone.  Everywhere 
throughout  the  little  town  or  village  one  comes 
upon  places  associated  with  the  memory  of 
Bolingbroke  and  of  other  men  famous  in  his- 
tory. Cross  the  bridge  that  spans  the  Thames 
and  you  are  in  the  Chelsea  region,  which  is 
suffused  with  historical  and  literary  associa- 
tions from  far-off  days  to  those  recent  times 
when  Thomas  Carlyle  had  his  home  in  one 
of  its  quiet  streets.     To  a  boy  with  any  turn 

184 


JOHN    BURNS 

for  reading  and  any  taste  for  history  and  litera- 
ture, all  that  quarter  of  London  on  both  sides 
of  the  Thames  must  have  been  filled  with 
inspiration.  John  Burns  had  always  a  love  of 
reading,  and  I  can  easily  fancy  that  the  memo- 
ries of  the  place  must  have  been  a  constant 
stimulant  and  inspiration  to  his  honorable 
ambition  for  self-culture.  His  school  days  fin- 
ished when  he  was  hardly  ten  years  old,  and 
then  he  was  set  to  earn  a  living,  first  in  a 
candle  factory  and  afterwards  in  the  works  of 
an  engineer.  Thus  he  toiled  away  until  he  had 
reached  manhood's  age,  and  all  the  time  he  was 
steadily  devoting  his  spare  hours  or  moments 
to  the  task  of  self-education.  He  read  every 
book  that  came  within  his  reach,  and  studied 
with  especial  interest  the  works  of  men  who 
set  themselves  to  the  consideration  of  great 
social  problems. 

Burns  naturally  became  very  soon  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  all  could  not  be  quite 
right  under  a  political  and  social  system  which 
made  the  workingman  a  mere  piece  of  living 
mechanism  and  gave  him  no  share  whatever  in 
the  constitutional  government  of  the  country. 
At  that  time  there  was  no  system  of  national 
education  in  England,  and  the  child  of  poor 

185 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

parents  had  to  get  his  teaching  through  some 
charitable  institution,  or  to  go  without  any 
teaching  whatever.  So  far  as  the  education  of 
the  poorest  classes  was  concerned,  England 
was  at  that  time  far  below  Scotland,  below 
Germany  and  Holland,  and  below  the  United 
States. 

As  regards  the  political  system,  a  man  of  the 
class  to  which  John  Burns  was  born  had  little 
chance  indeed  of  obtaining  the  right  to  vote  at 
a  Parliamentary  election,  which  was  given  only 
to  men  who  had  certain  qualifications  of  income 
and  of  residence  not  often  to  be  found  amona: 
the  working  classes.  The  English  system  of 
national  education  is  little  more  than  thirty 
years  old,  and  the  extension  of  the  voting  power 
which  makes  it  now  practically  a  manhood  suf- 
frage is  likewise  of  very  modern  date.  It  was 
natural  that  an  intelligent  and  thoughtful  boy 
like  John  Burns  should,  under  such  conditions, 
become  filled  with  socialistic  doctrines  and 
should  find  himself  growing  into  a  mood  of 
impatience  and  hostility  towards  the  rule  of 
aristocrats,  landlords,  and  capitalists,  by  which 
the  country  was  then  dominated.  Soon  after 
he  had  reached  his  twenty-first  year  he  obtained 
employment  as  a  foreman  engineer  on  the  Niger 

1 86 


JOHN    BURNS 

in  Africa,  and  there  he  had  his  first  experience 
of  a  climate  and  a  hfe  totally  unlike  to  anything 
that  could  be  found  in  the  Battersea  regions. 
I  have  often  heard  it  said  that  during  his  em- 
ployment in  English  steamers  on  the  Niger  he 
was  known  among  his  British  companions  as 
"  Coffee-pot  Burns,"  in  jocular  recognition  of 
his  devotion  to  total  abstinence  principles.  He 
spent  about  a  year  in  his  African  occupation, 
■  and  during  that  time  he  had  managed  to  save 
up  a  considerable  amount  of  his  pay,  a  saving 
which  we  may  be  sure  was  in  great  measure 
due  to  his  practice  of  total  abstinence  from  any 
drinks  stronger  than  that  which  was  properly 
contained  in  the  coffee-pot.  When  he  left 
Africa,  he  invested  his  savings  in  a  manner 
which  I  cannot  but  regard  as  peculiarly  charac- 
teristic of  him,  and  which  must  have  given  to 
such  a  man  a  profitable  return  for  his  invest- 
ment —  he  spent  his  savings,  in  fact,  on  a  tour 
of  several  months  throughout  Europe.  Thus 
he  acquired  an  invaluable  addition  to  his  stock 
of  practical  observation  and  a  fresh  impulse  to 
his  studies  of  life  and  of  books.  He  settled 
down  in  England  as  a  working  engineer,  and 
he  soon  began  to  take  a  deep  interest  and  an 
active  share  in  every  movement  which  had  for 

187 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

its  object  the  welfare  of  the  classes  who  live  by- 
daily  labor. 

Obviously,  there  are  many  improvements  in 
the  condition  of  such  men  which  could  only 
be  brought  about  by  legislation,  and  John  Burns 
therefore  became  a  political  agitator.  His  voice 
was  heard  from  the  platforms  of  great  popular 
meetings  held  in  and  around  London  and  in 
many  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  great  agitation  which 
secured  for  the  public  the  right  of  holding  open- 
air  meetings  in  Trafalgar  Square.  John  Burns 
was  meant  by  nature  to  be  a  popular  orator. 
He  has  a  physical  frame  which  can  stand  any 
amount  of  exertion,  and  his  voice,  at  once 
powerful  and  musical,  can  make  itself  heard  to 
the  farthest  limit  of  the  largest  outdoor  meeting 
in  Hyde  Park  or  Trafalgar  Square.  But  he  is 
in  no  sense  whatever  a  mere  declaimer.  He 
argues  every  question  out  in  a  practical  and 
reasonable  way,  and  although  he  has  some  views 
on  political  and  industrial  subjects  which  many 
of  his  opponents  would  condemn  as  socialistic, 
there  is  nothing  in  him  of  the  revolutionist  or 
the  anarchist.  His  object  is  to  bring  about  by 
free  and  lawful  public  debate  those  reforms  in 
the  political  and  industrial  systems  which  he 


JOHN    BURNS 

regards  as  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the 
whole  community.  The  Conservative  party  in 
this  country  used  to  have  for  a  long  time  one 
particular  phrase  which  was  understood  to  em- 
body the  heaviest  accusation  that  could  be 
brought  against  a  public  man.  To  say  that 
this  or  that  public  speaker  was  endeavoring  to 
"  set  class  against  class "  was  understood  to 
mean  his  utter  condemnation  in  the  minds  of 
all  well-behaved  citizens.  We  do  not  hear  so 
much  of  this  accusation  in  later  days,  partly 
because  some  of  the  very  measures  demanded 
by  those  setters  of  class  against  class  have  been 
adopted  by  Conservative  Governments  and  car- 
ried into  law  by  Conservative  votes.  But  there 
was  a  period  in  the  life  of  John  Burns  when 
he  must  have  found  himself  denounced  almost 
every  day  in  speech  or  newspaper  article  as 
one  whose  main  endeavor  was  to  set  class 
against  class.  John  Burns  does  not  seem  to 
have  troubled  himself  much  about  the  accusa- 
tion. Perhaps  he  reasoned  within  himself  that 
if  the  endeavor  to  obtain  for  workingmen  the 
right  of  voting  at  elections  and  the  right  to 
form  themselves  into  trades-unions  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bettering  their  lives  were  the  endeavor 
to  set  class  against  class,  then  there  is  nothing 

189 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

for  it  but  to  go  on  setting  class  against  class 
until  the  beneficent  result  be  obtained.  So 
John  Burns  went  on  setting  class  against  class, 
with  the  result  that  he  became  recognized  all 
over  the  country  as  one  of  the  most  eloquent, 
capable,  and  judicious  leaders  whom  the  work- 
ingmen  could  show,  and  his  unselfishness  and 
integrity  were  never  disparaged  even  by  his 
most  extreme  political  opponents. 

A  remarkable  evidence  was  soon  to  be  given 
of  the  solid  reputation  which  he  had  won  for 
himself  in  public  life.  A  complete  change  was 
made  by  Parliamentary  legislation  in  the  whole 
system  of  London's  municipal  government.  The 
vast  metropolis  which  we  call  London  was  up 
to  that  time  under  the  control  for  municipal 
affairs  of  the  various  parish  boards  and  local 
vestries,  each  of  them  constructed  on  some  re- 
presentative system  peculiarly  its  own,  and  none 
of  them,  it  may  be  justly  said,  under  any  direct 
control  from  the  great  mass  of  the  community. 
The  greater  part  of  the  West  End  of  London 
was  under  the  management  of  a  body  known 
as  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works ;  the  City 
of  London  was  dominated  by  its  own  historic 
Corporation ;  each  other  district  of  the  metro- 
polis had  its  governing  vestry  or  some  such 

190 


JOHN    BURNS 

institution.  Apart  from  all  other  objections  to 
such  a  system,  one  of  its  obvious  defects  was 
that  no  common  principle  was  recognized  in 
the  municipal  arrangements  of  the  metropolis ; 
there  were  no  common  rules  for  their  regula- 
tion of  trafific,  for  the  levying  of  rates,  for  the 
management  of  public  institutions,  and  a  Lon- 
doner who  changed  his  residence  from  one 
part  of  the  town  to  another,  or  even  from  one 
side  of  a  street  to  another,  might  find  himself 
suddenly  brought  under  the  control  of  a  system 
of  municipal  regulations  with  which  he  was 
totally  unfamiliar.  Appeals  were  constantly 
made  by  enlightened  Londoners  for  some  uni- 
form system  of  London  government,  but  for  a 
long  time  nothing  was  done  in  the  way  of 
reform.  At  last,  however,  it  happened — luckily, 
in  one  sense,  for  the  community  —  that  the 
Metropolitan  Board  of  Works,  which  ruled  the 
West  End  districts,  became  the  cause  of  much 
public  scandal  because  of  its  mistakes  and  mis- 
management, not  to  use  any  harsher  terms, 
in  the  dealing  with  public  contracts.  The 
excitement  caused  by  these  discoveries  made  it 
impossible  for  the  old  system  to  be  maintained 
any  longer,  and  the  result  was  the  passing  of 
an  Act  of  Parliament  which  created  an  entirely 

191 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

new  governing  body  for  the  metropolis.     This 
new  governing  body  was  styled  the   London 
County  Council,  and  it  was  to  have  control  of 
the  whole  metropolis,  with  the  exception  of  that 
comparatively  small  extent  of  municipal  terri- 
tory which  we  know  as  the  City  of  London. 
The  members  of  the  new  County  Council  were 
to  be  chosen,  for  the  most  part,  as  are  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  by  direct 
popular  suffrage.     Some  of  the  foremost  men 
in  England  became  members  of  the  new  County 
Council.     One  of  these  was   Lord  Rosebery, 
another  was  Sir  Thomas  Farrer  (who  has  since 
become    Lord    Farrer),   a   third   was   Frederic 
Harrison,  one  of  the  most  eminent  writers  and 
thinkers   of  his   time,   and  another  was  John 
Burns,  the  working  engineer.     I  mention  this 
fact  only  to  show  how  thoroughly  John  Burns 
must  have  established  his  reputation  as  a  man 
well  qualified  to   take  a  leading  place  in  the 
municipal  government  of  London.     Since  that 
time  he  has  been  elected  again  and  again  to 
the  same  position. 

When  the  great  dispute  broke  out  in  London 
between  the  dock-laborers  and  the  ship-owners, 
John  Burns  took  an  active  and  untiring  part 
in  the  endeavor  to   obtain  fair  terms  for  the 

192 


JOHN   BURNS 

workers,  and  by  his  moderation  and  judgment, 
as  well  as  by  his  inexhaustible  energy,  he  did 
inestimable  service  in  the  bringing  about  of 
a  satisfactory  settlement.  The  late  Cardinal 
Manning  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  effort 
to  obtain  good  terms  for  the  workingmen,  and 
he  was  recognized  on  both  sides  of  the  dispute 
as  a  most  acceptable  mediator,  and  I  remember 
that  he  expressed  himself  more  than  once  in 
the  highest  terms  as  to  the  services  rendered 
by  John  Burns  during  the  whole  of  the  crisis. 
Burns  made  one  or  two  unsuccessful  attempts 
to  obtain  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  — 
or  perhaps,  to  put  it  more  correctly,  I  should 
say  that  he  consented,  in  obedience  to  the  pres- 
sure of  his  friends  and  followers,  to  become  a 
candidate  for  a  seat.  In  1892  he  was  elected 
to  Parliament  as  the  representative  of  that  Bat- 
tersea  district  where  his  life  began,  and  he  has 
held  the  seat  ever  since.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  he  has  been  a  decided  success.  It 
is  only  right  to  say  that  the  workingmen 
representatives,  who  now  form  a  distinct  and 
influential  section  in  the  House,  have  fully  vin- 
dicated their  right  to  hold  places  there,  and 
have,  with  hardly  any  exception,  done  honor  to 
the  choice  of  their  constituents.     John  Burns 

193 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

is  among  the  foremost,  if  not  the  very  foremost, 
of  the  working  class  representatives.  He  has 
won  the  good  opinions  of  all  parties  and  classes 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  has  won  espe- 
cial merit  which  counts  for  much  in  the  House 
—  he  never  makes  a  speech  unless  when  he 
has  something  to  say  which  has  a  direct  bearing 
on  the  debate  in  progress  and  which  it  is  im- 
portant that  the  House  should  hear.  He  is 
never  a  mere  declaimer,  and  he  never  speaks 
for  the  sake  of  making  a  speech  and  having  it 
reported  in  the  newspapers.  The  House  always 
knows  that  when  John  Burns  rises  he  has  some 
solid  argument  to  offer,  and  that  he  will  sit 
down  as  soon  as  he  has  said  his  say. 

The  first  time  I  had  the  honor  of  becoming 
personally  acquainted  with  John  Burns  was  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  shortly  after  his  first 
election,  and  I  was  introduced  to  him  by  my 
friend  Michael  Davitt.  I  could  not  help  feel- 
ing at  the  time  that  it  was  a  remarkable  event 
in  one's  life  to  be  introduced  to  John  Burns  by 
Michael  Davitt.  Both  these  men  were  then 
honored  members  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  both  had  for  many  years  been  regarded  by 
most  of  what  are  called  the  ruling  classes  as 
disturbers  of  the  established  order  of  things  and 

194 


JOHN    BURNS 

enemies  of  the  British  Constitution.  Davitt 
had  spent  years  in  prison  as  a  rebel,  and  Burns 
had  been  at  least  once  imprisoned,  though  but 
for  a  short  time,  as  a  disturber  of  public  order. 
Every  one  came  to  admit  in  the  end  that  each 
man  was  thoroughly  devoted  to  a  cause  which 
he  believed  rightful,  and  that  the  true  and  last- 
ing prosperity  of  a  State  must  depend  largely 
on  men  who  are  thus  willing  to  make  any 
sacrifice  for  the  maintenance  of  equal  political 
rights  in  the  community.  I  have  had,  since 
that  time,  many  opportunities  of  meeting  with 
Burns  in  public  and  private  and  exchanging 
ideas  with  him  on  all  manner  of  subjects,  and  I 
can  only  say  that  the  better  I  have  known  him 
the  higher  has  been  my  opinion  of  his  intelli- 
gence, his  sincerity,  and  his  capacity  to  do  the 
State  some  service. 

John  Burns  has  made  himself  very  useful  in 
the  committee  work  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  House  hands  over  the  manipulation  and 
arrangement  of  many  of  its  measures  on  what 
I  may  call  technical  subjects  —  measures  con- 
cerning trade  and  industry,  shipping  and  rail- 
ways, and  other  such  affairs  of  business  —  to 
be  discussed  in  detail  and  put  into  working 
shape  by  small  committees  chosen  from  among 

195 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

the  members ;  and  these  measures,  when  they 
have  passed  through  this  process  of  examina- 
tion, are  brought  up  for  full  and  final  settlement 
in  the  House  itself.  It  will  be  easily  under- 
stood that  there  are  many  subjects  of  this  order, 
on  which  the  practical  experience  and  the  varied 
observation  of  a  man  like  Burns  must  count  for 
much  in  the  shaping  of  legislation.  Burns  has 
genial,  unpretending  manners,  and  although  he 
was  born  with  a  fighting  spirit,  he  is  not  one  of 
those  who  make  it  their  effort  to  cram  their 
opinions  down  the  throats  of  their  opponents. 
Although  his  views  are  extreme  on  most  of  the 
questions  in  which  he  takes  a  deep  interest, 
he  is  always  willing  to  admit  that  there  may  be 
something  to  be  said  on  the  other  side  of  the 
controversy ;  he  is  ever  ready  to  give  a  full  con- 
sideration to  all  the  arguments  of  his  fellow- 
members,  and  if  any  one  in  the  committee  can 
show  him  that  he  is  mistaken  on  this  or  that 
point,  he  will  yield  to  the  force  of  argument, 
and  has  no  hesitation  about  acknowledging  a 
change  in  his  views.  Fervent  as  he  is  in  his 
devotion  to  any  of  the  great  principles  which 
have  become  a  faith  with  him,  there  is  nothing 
of  the  fanatic  about  him,  and  I  do  not  think  his 
enemies  would  ever  have  to  fear  persecution  at 

196 


JOHN    BURNS 

his  hands.  There  is  no  roughness  in  his  man- 
ners, although  he  has  certainly  not  been  brought 
up  to  the  ways  of  what  is  generally  known  as 
good  society;  and  his  smile  is  winning  and 
sweet.  He  has  probably  a  certain  conscious- 
ness of  mental  strength,  as  he  has  of  physical 
strength,  which  relieves  him  from  any  inclina- 
tion towards  self-assertion.  I  should  find  it  as 
difficult  to  believe  that  John  Burns  counte- 
nanced a  deed  of  oppression  as  I  should  find  it 
to  believe  that  he  sought  by  obsequiousness 
the  favor  of  the  great. 

John  Burns  was,  it  is  almost  needless  to  say, 
an  opponent  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
policy  which  led  to  the  war  against  the  South 
African  Republics.  When  the  general  election 
came  on,  about  midway  in  the  course  of  the 
war,  the  war  passion  had  come  upon  the  coun- 
try like  an  epidemic,  and  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  English  representatives  lost  their 
seats  in  the  House  of  Commons  because  they 
refused  to  sanction  the  Jingo  policy.  Many 
men  who  were  rising  rapidly  into  Parliamen- 
tary distinction  were  defeated  at  the  elections 
by  Imperialist  candidates.  Nor  were  the  men 
thus  shut  out  from  Parliament  for  the  time 
all  members  of   the  Liberal  party.     In  some 

197 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

instances,  although  few  indeed,  there  were  men 
belonging  to  the  Conservative,  the  Ministerial, 
side,  who  could  not  see  the  justice  of  the  war 
policy  and  would  not  conceal  their  opinions, 
and  who  therefore  had  to  forfeit  their  seats 
when  some  thoroughgoing  Tory  Imperialists 
presented  themselves  as  rivals  for  the  favor  of 
the  local  voters.  So  great  was  the  influence  of 
the  war  passion  that  even  among  the  constitu- 
encies where  the  workingmen  were  strong  there 
were  examples  of  an  Imperialist  victory  over 
the  true  principles  of  liberty  and  democracy. 
But  the  Battersea  constituents  of  John  Burns 
remained  faithful  to  their  political  creed  and  to 
him,  and  he  was  sent  back  in  triumph  to  the 
House  of  Commons  to  carry  on  the  fight  for 
every  good  cause  there.  He  took  part  in  many 
debates  during  the  continuance  of  the  cam- 
paign, and  he  never  made  a  speech  on  the 
subject  of  the  w^ar  which  was  not  listened  to 
with  interest  even  by  those  most  opposed  to  his 
opinions.  He  has  the  gift  of  debate  as  well  as 
the  gift  of  declamation,  and  he  knows  his  part 
in  Parliamentary  life  far  too  well  to  substitute 
declamation  for  debate.  The  typical  dema- 
gogue, as  he  is  pictured  by  those  who  do  not 
sympathize   with   democracy,   would    on    such 

198 


JOHN    BURNS 

occasions  have  merely  relieved  his  mind  by 
repeated  denunciations  of  that  war  in  particular 
and  of  wars  in  general,  and  would  soon  have 
lost  any  hold  on  the  attention  of  the  House, 
which  is,  to  do  it  justice,  highly  practical  in  its 
methods  of  discussion.  John  Burns  spoke  in 
each  debate  on  the  war  when  he  had  something 
to  say  which  could  practically  and  precisely 
bear  on  the  subject  then  under  immediate 
consideration  —  a  question  connected  with  the 
administration  of  the  campaign,  with  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  War  Office  or  the  Colonial 
Office  was  conducting  some  particular  part 
of  its  administrative  task,  with  the  immediate 
effects  of  this  or  that  movement,  and  in  this 
way  he  compelled  attention  and  he  challenged 
reply.  I  remember,  for  instance,  that  when 
the  spokesmen  of  the  Government  were  laying 
great  stress  on  the  severity  and  injustice  of  the 
Boer  State's  dealings  with  the  native  popula- 
tions of  South  Africa,  John  Burns  gave  from 
his  own  experience  and  observation  instances 
of  the  manner  in  which  African  populations 
had  been  dealt  with  by  British  authorities, 
and  demanded  whether  such  actions  would  not 
have  justified  the  intervention  of  some  Euro- 
pean State  if  the  conduct  of  the  Boer  Govern- 

199 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

ment,  supposing  it  to  be  accurately  described, 
was  a  justification  for  England's  invasion  of 
the  Boer  territory.  Whenever  he  took  part 
in  the  debate,  he  met  his  opponents  on  their 
own  ground,  and  he  challenged  their  policy  in 
practical  detail,  instead  of  wasting  his  time  in 
mere  declamatory  appeals  to  principles  of  lib- 
erty and  justice  which  would  have  fallen  flat 
upon  the  minds  of  those  who  held  it  as  their 
creed  that  Imperial  England  was  free  to  dictate 
her  terms  to  all  peoples  of  inferior  strength 
and  less  highly  developed  civilization. 

John  Burns  has  fairly  won  for  himself  an 
honorable  place  in  the  history  of  our  time.  If 
he  had  done  nothing  else,  he  would  have  ac- 
complished much  by  demonstrating  in  his  own 
person  the  right  of  the  workingman  to  have  a 
seat  in  Parliament.  One  finds  it  hard  now  to 
understand  how  the  English  House  of  Com- 
mons could  ever  have  been  regarded  as  the 
representative  ruling  body  of  England,  when 
it  held  no  members  who  were  authorized  by 
position  and  by  experience  to  speak  for  the 
working  populations  of  the  country.  I  mean 
no  disparagement  to  the  other  representatives 
of  the  working  classes  when  I  say  that  I  regard 
John  Burns  as  the  most  distinguished  and  the 

200 


JOHN    BURNS 

most  influential  among  them.  Others  of  the 
same  order  have  rendered  valuable  service,  not 
merely  to  their  own  class,  but  to  the  State  in 
general  since  they  came  to  hold  seats  in  the 
House  of  Commons ;  some  have  even  held 
administrative  office  in  a  Liberal  Government, 
and  have  shown  themselves  well  qualified  for 
the  duties.  Not  any  of  them,  so  far  as  I  can 
recollect,  has  ever  shown  himself  the  mere  de- 
claimer  and  demagogue  whom  so  many  Con- 
servative observers  and  critics  used  to  tell  us 
we  must  expect  to  meet  if  the  workingmen 
were  enabled  to  send  their  spokesmen  into  the 
House  of  Commons.  I  do  not  know  whether 
John  Burns  has  any  ambition  to  hold  a  seat  in 
some  future  Liberal  Ministry,  but  I  venture  to 
think  that  if  such  should  be  his  fortune,  he  will 
prove  himself  more  useful  than  ever  to  the  best 
interests  of  his  country.  He  has  never  sought 
to  obtain  the  favor  and  the  support  of  his 
own  order  by  flattering  their  weaknesses,  by 
encouraging  them  in  their  errors,  or  by  allow- 
ing them  to  believe  that  the  right  must  always 
be  on  their  side  and  the  wrong  on  the  side  of 
their  opponents.  I  fully  believe  that  he  has 
good  and  great  work  yet  to  do. 


201 


SIR   MICHAEL   HICKS-BEACH 


Photiigraph  copyright  by  W.  &  D.  Downey 

SIR    MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 


SIR  MICHAEL   HICKS-BEACH 

Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  is  now,  as  every- 
body knows,  out  of  office.  //  reviendra,  no 
doubt,  and  in  a  happier  sense,  we  may  trust, 
than  fate  allowed  to  the  once  famous  personage 
concerning  whom  the  words  I  have  quoted  were 
said  and  sung  throughout  France.  //  revicndra 
was  the  burden  of  the  chant  composed  to  the 
honor  of  the  late  General  Boulanger  and  echoed 
through  all  the  French  music-halls  at  the  time 
when  Boulanger  got  into  trouble  with  the  ex- 
isting government.  But  Sir  Michael  Hicks- 
Beach  is  a  man  of  very  different  order  from 
Boulanger,  with  whom  he  has,  so  far  as  I  know, 
nothing  whatever  in  common  except  the  fact 
that  they  were  both   born   in  the  same   year, 

1837. 

The  admirers  of  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach 

may  take  it  for  granted  that  he  will  some  time 
or  other  return  to  a  high  position  in  an  English 
administration.  Whether  that  administration 
is  to  be  Liberal  or  Conservative  we  must  wait 

205 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

for  events  to  show.  One  can  imagine  the  for- 
mation of  a  Conservative  Government  which 
might  rise  to  the  level  of  Hicks-Beach ;  or  one 
might  imagine  the  formation  of  a  Liberal  Gov- 
ernment in  which  Hicks-Beach  could  see  his 
way  to  take  office ;  but  I  think  it  would  be  hard 
to  realize  the  idea  of  such  a  man  being  left  out 
of  office  or  kept  out  of  office  for  many  years. 
He  was,  according  to  my  judgment,  the  most 
efficient  and  capable  member  of  the  Conserva- 
tive Government  now  in  office,  the  Government 
from  which  he  felt  himself  compelled  to  with- 
draw, or  in  which,  at  all  events,  he  was  not 
pressed  to  continue.  He  was  not  a  brilliant 
figure  in  that  Government.  He  had  not  the 
push  and  the  energy  and  the  impressive  debat- 
ing powers  of  Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  he  had  not 
the  culture,  the  grace,  and  the  literary  style  of 
Mr.  Arthur  Balfour.  He  made  no  pretensions 
whatever  to  the  gift  of  oratory,  although  he  had 
some  at  least  of  the  qualities  which  are  needed 
for  oratorical  success.  His  style  of  speaking  is 
remarkably  clear  and  impressive.  No  question, 
however  complex  and  difficult,  seems  hard  to 
understand  when  explained  by  Hicks-Beach. 
He  compels  attention  rather  than  attracts  it. 
There  are  no  alluring  qualities  in  his  eloquence, 

206 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

there  are  no  graces  of  manner  or  exquisite  forms 
of  expression ;  there  is  a  cold,  almost  harsh 
clearness  enforcing  itself  in  every  speech.  The 
speaker  seems  to  be  telling  his  hearers  that, 
whether  they  agree  with  him  or  not,  whether  they 
like  him  or  not,  they  must  listen  to  what  he  has 
to  say.  There  is  a  certain  quality  of  antagon- 
ism in  his  manner  from  first  to  last,  and  he 
conveys  the  idea  of  one  who  feels  a  grim  satis- 
faction in  the  work  of  hammering  his  opinions 
into  the  heads  of  men  who  would  rather  be 
thinking  of  something  else  if  the  choice  were 
left  to  them.  "  Black  Michael  "  is  the  nick- 
name familiarly  applied  to  Sir  Michael  Hicks- 
Beach  in  private  conversation  by  the  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  nickname 
has  found  its  way  into  the  columns  of  "  Punch  " 
and  other  periodicals.  The  term  "  Black  Mi- 
chael "  does  not,  we  may  assume,  refer  merely 
to  the  complexion  of  Hicks-Beach,  to  the  color 
of  his  hair ;  but  means  to  suggest  a  grim  dark- 
someness  about  his  whole  expression  of  coun- 
tenance and  bearing.  Certainly  any  one  who 
watches  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  as  he  sits 
during  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
waiting  for  his  turn  to  reply  to  the  attacks  on 
some  measure  of  which  he  is  a  supporter,  will 

207 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

easily  understand  the  significance  of  the  appel- 
lation. Hicks-Beach  follows  every  sentence  of 
the  speaker  then  addressing  the  House  with  a 
stern  and  ironical  gaze  of  intensity  which  seems 
already  to  foredoom  the  unlucky  orator  to  a 
merciless  castigation.  I  must  say  that  if  I  were 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  devoted 
to  the  championship  of  some  not  quite  ortho- 
dox financial  theory,  I  should  not  like  to  know 
that  my  exposition  of  the  doctrine  was  to  be 
publicly  analyzed  by  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach. 
Yet  Hicks- Beach  is  not  by  any  means  an  un- 
genial  man,  according  to  my  observation.  Some 
of  his  colleagues  say  that  he  has  a  bad  temper, 
or  at  least  a  quick  temper ;  and  I  must  say  that 
I  can  easily  understand  how  a  man  of  vigorous 
intelligence  and  expansive  views  might  occa- 
sionally be  brought  into  a  mood  of  unphilo- 
sophic  acrimony  by  the  goings-on  of  the  present 
Conservative  administration.  During  my  many 
years  of  service  in  the  House  of  Commons  I 
had  opportunities  of  coming  into  personal  in- 
tercourse with  Hicks- Beach,  and  I  have  always 
found  him  easy  of  approach  and  genial  in  his 
manners.  At  different  times  while  he  was 
holding  office  I  had  to  make  representations 
to  him  privately  with  regard  to  some  difficulty 

208 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

arising  between  an  administrative  department 
and  certain  localities  which  felt  themselves 
oppressed,  or  at  least  put  at  a  disadvantage, 
by  the  working  of  new  regulations.  I  always 
found  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  ready  to  give 
a  full  and  fair  consideration  to  every  complaint 
and  to  exercise  his  authority  for  the  removal  of 
any  genuine  grievance.  But  I  can  easily  un- 
derstand that  observers  who  have  not  had  per- 
sonal dealings  with  Hicks-Beach  and  have  only 
observed  him  as  he  sits  silent,  dark,  and  grim 
during  some  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
may  well  have  formed  some  very  decided  im- 
pressions as  to  his  habitual  moods  and  tempers. 
A  member  of  the  House  once  asked  me  whether 
I  was  aware  of  the  fact  that  a  certain  line  in 
one  of  Macaulay's  *'  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome  " 
was  supposed  to  contain  a  prophetic  description 
of  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach.  I  gave  up  the 
puzzle,  and  then  my  friend  told  me  that  the 
description  was  contained  in  the  lines  describ- 
ing the  Roman  trumpet-call  which  tell  that 

"  The  kite  knows  well  the  long  stern  swell." 

I  hope  my  American  readers  will  not  have 
quite  forgotten  the  meaning  of  the  term  "  swell," 
now  somewhat  falling  into  disuse,  but  at  one 

209 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

time  very  commonly  employed  in  England  to 
describe  a  member  of  what  would  now  be  called 
"  smart  society." 

Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  has  held  many 
offices.  He  has  been  Under-Secretary  for  the 
Home  Department,  and  Secretary  to  the  Poor 
Law  Board  ;  he  has  been  twice  Chief  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  or,  to  speak  more  strictly.  Chief  Sec- 
retary to  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland ;  and 
he  has  been  twice  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  he  was  not  able  to  accom- 
plish much  during  the  periods  of  his  Irish  ad- 
ministration. I  have  said  in  preceding  articles 
that  it  is  not  possible  for  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary of  a  Conservative  Government  to  accom- 
plish anything  worth  attempting  in  the  work  of 
Irish  administration.  What  Ireland  demands 
is  the  right  to  manage  her  own  national  affairs 
in  her  own  domestic  Parliament,  and  there  is 
nothing  worth  doing  to  be  done  by  any  govern- 
ment which  will  not  take  serious  account  of  her 
one  predominant  claim.  No  patronage  of  local 
charities,  local  flower  shows,  and  local  race- 
courses, no  amount  of  Dublin  Castle  hospitali- 
ties, no  vice-regal  visits  to  public  schools  and 
municipal  institutions,  can  bring  about  any  real 
improvement  in  the  relations  between   Great 

2IO 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

Britain  and  Ireland.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Hicks-Beach  did  all  in  his  power  to  see  that 
the  business  of  his  department  was  efficiently 
and  honestly  conducted  in  Dublin  Castle,  but 
under  the  conditions  imposed  upon  him  by 
Conservative  principles  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  accomplish  any  success  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  Irish  affairs.  It  has  often  come  into 
my  mind  that  a  certain  sense  of  his  limitations 
in  this  way  was  sometimes  apparent  in  the  bear- 
ing and  manner  of  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach, 
when  he  had  to  take  any  prominent  part  in  the 
business  of  Dublin  Castle.  He  has  an  active 
mind  and  a  ready  faculty  of  initiative,  and  there 
was  no  place  for  such  a  man  in  the  sort  of  ad- 
ministrative work  which  mainly  consists  in  the 
endeavor  to  keep  things  going  as  they  have 
been  going,  and  striving  after  an  impossible 
compromise  between  despotic  principles  and  a 
free  constitutional  system. 

Hicks-Beach,  of  course,  was  more  in  his 
place  when  at  the  head  of  the  financial  depart- 
ment of  the  administration.  He  is  admitted  to 
have  been  one  of  the  most  skillful  and  enlight- 
ened among  modern  Chancellors  of  the  Ex- 
chequer. His  financial  statements  were  always 
thoroughly  clear,  symmetrical,  and  interesting 

211 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

from  first  to  last.  He  never  got  into  any  en- 
tanglement with  his  figures,  and  his  array  of 
facts  was  always  marshaled  with  something  like 
dramatic  skill.  I  do  not  profess  to  be  very 
strong  upon  financial  questions,  but  I  could 
always  understand  and  follow  with  the  deepest 
interest  any  financial  exposition  made  by  Hicks- 
Beach.  He  seemed  to  me  to  be  distinctly  above 
the  level  of  his  party  and  his  official  colleagues 
on  all  such  questions,  and  it  has  often  occurred 
to  me  that  such  a  man  was  rather  thrown  away 
upon  a  Conservative  Government.  Whatever 
else  might  be  said  against  them,  it  could  not  be 
said  that  his  speeches  at  any  time  sank  to  the 
level  of  the  commonplace.  There  was  some- 
thing combative  in  his  nature,  and  his  style  of 
speaking,  with  its  clear,  strong,  and  sometimes 
almost  harsh  tones,  appeared  as  if  it  were  de- 
signed in  advance  to  confront  and  put  down  all 
opposition.  The  House  of  Commons  had  for 
a  long  time  got  into  the  way  of  regarding  Hicks- 
Beach  as  a  man  in  advance  of  his  colleagues  on 
all  subjects  of  financial  administration.  Every 
Tory  in  office,  or  likely  to  be  in  office,  now  pro- 
fesses himself  a  free-trader,  in  the  English  sense 
of  the  phrase,  but  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  was 
evidently  a  genuine  free-trader,  and  never  could 

212 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

have  been  anything  else  since  he  first  turned 
his  attention  seriously  and  steadily  to  financial 
questions.  I  should  describe  him  as  one  of  the 
foremost  debaters  in  the  House  of  Commons 
among  the  men  who  made  no  pretensions  to 
the  higher  order  of  eloquence  ;  and  probably  an 
additional  attraction  was  given  to  his  speeches 
by  that  aggressive  and  combative  tone  which  I 
have  just  noticed.  I  have  sometimes  fancied 
that  his  combativeness  of  manner  and  his  dic- 
tatorial style  were  less  intended  for  the  discom- 
fiture of  his  recognized  political  opponents  than 
for  that  of  his  own  colleagues  in  office.  Long 
before  there  was  any  rumor  of  incompatibility 
between  Hicks-Beach  and  the  members  of  the 
present  Government,  I  have  often  found  myself 
wondering  how  the  man  who  expressed  such 
enlightened  ideas  on  so  many  financial  and 
political  questions  could  possibly  get  on  with  a 
somewhat  reactionary  Conservative  administra- 
tion. Of  course  I  have  no  means  of  knowing 
anything  beyond  that  which  is  known  to  the 
general  public  concerning  the  causes  which  led 
to  Hicks-Beach's  withdrawal  or  exclusion  from 
his  place  in  the  present  Government.  Even 
those  London  journals  which  profess  to  know 
everything   about   the   inner   councils   of    the 

213 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

Cabinet  did  not,  and  do  not,  tell  us  anything 
more  on  this  particular  subject  than  the  news, 
impossible  to  be  concealed,  that  Sir  Michael 
Hicks-Beach  had  ceased  to  be  a  member  of  the 
Conservative  administration.  We  were  all  left 
to  make  any  conjectures  we  pleased  as  to  the 
cause  of  this  remarkable  change,  and  I  feel, 
therefore,  no  particular  diffidence  in  expound- 
ing my  own  theory.  During  the  long  debates 
on  Hicks-Beach's  latest  Budget  proposals, 
which  I  had  to  follow  only  through  the  medium 
of  the  newspaper  reports,  I  became  possessed 
with  the  idea  that  Hicks-Beach  was  performing 
reluctantly  an  uncongenial  and  almost  intoler- 
able task. 

Let  me  recall  to  the  minds  of  my  readers 
some  of  the  conditions  amid  which  Hicks- 
Beach  found  himself  compelled  of  late  to  carry 
on  his  work.  It  should  be  said,  in  the  first 
instance,  that  he  never  showed  himself,  and,  as 
I  believe,  never  could  have  been,  a  genuine 
Tory  of  the  old  school.  He  never  exhibited 
himself  as  an  uncompromising  partisan  on  any 
of  the  great  subjects  which  arouse  political 
antagonism.  He  must  have  had  very  little 
sympathy  indeed  with  the  dogmas  and  the 
watchwords  and  the  war-cries  of  old-fashioned 

214 


SIR   MICHAEL   HICKS-BEACH 

militant  Toryism.  He  never  identified  himself 
with  the  cause  of  the  Orangemen  in  Ireland  or 
the  principles  of  the  Jingoes  in  England.  He 
seldom  addressed  the  House  of  Commons  on 
any  subjects  but  those  which  belonged  to  his 
own  department,  and  these  were  for  the  most 
part  questions  of  finance.  When,  however,  he 
had  occasionally  to  take  part  in  debates  on  sub- 
jects connected  with  England's  foreign  policy, 
he  generally  spoke  with  an  enlightenment,  a 
moderation,  and  a  conciliatory  tone  which  would 
have  done  credit  to  any  statesman  and  seemed 
little  in  keeping  with  the  policy  and  the  temper 
of  modern  Toryism.  But  Hicks-Beach  had 
fallen  upon  evil  days  for  a  man  of  his  foresight, 
his  intellect,  and  his  temperament  generally 
who  had  found  a  place  in  a  Conservative  Cab- 
inet. The  policy  which  led  to  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  in  South  Africa  aroused  a  passion 
in  the  English  public  mind  which  found  its 
utmost  fury  among  the  partisans  of  Toryism. 
Tory  and  Jingo  became  for  the  time  synony- 
mous terms.  The  man  who  did  not  allow 
his  heart  and  soul  to  be  filled  with  the  war 
spirit  must  have  seemed  to  most  of  his  friends 
unworthy  to  be  called  a  Conservative.  Even 
among  certain  sections  of  the   Liberals  it  re- 

215 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

quired  much  courage  for  any  man  to  condemn 
or  even  to  criticise  with  severity  the  pohcy 
which  had  led  to  the  war.  Any  one  who  ven- 
tured on  such  a  course,  whether  he  were  Lib- 
eral or  Conservative,  was  straightway  branded 
with  the  opprobrious  epithet  of  pro-Boer,  and 
that  title  was  supposed  to  carry  his  complete 
condemnation.  England  had  come  back  sud- 
denly to  the  same  kind  of  passionate  temper 
which  prevailed  during  the  earlier  part  of  the 
Crimean  War.  "  He  who  is  not  with  us  is 
against  us,"  cried  the  professing  patriots  at 
both  times  —  he  who  does  not  glorify  the  war 
is  a  traitor  to  his  own  country  and  a  pro-Boer, 
or  a  pro-Russian,  as  the  case  might  be.  This 
was  the  temper  with  which  Hicks-Beach  found 
that  he  had  to  deal  during  the  later  years  of 
his  financial  administration. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  to  enter  into  any 
speculation  as  to  what  Hicks-Beach's  own  views 
may  have  been  with  regard  to  the  whole  policy 
of  the  war.  It  is  now  well  known  that  Queen 
Victoria  was  entirely  opposed  to  that  policy, 
although  she  did  not  feel  that  her  position  as  a 
constitutional  sovereign  gave  her  authority  to 
overrule  it  by  a  decision  of  her  own.  There  is 
very  good   reason   to   believe  that  peace  was 

216 


SIR  MICHAEL   HICKS-BEACH 

brought  about  at  last  by  the  resolute  exercise 
of  King  Edward's  influence.  It  is  at  least  not 
unlikely  that  a  man  of  Hicks-Beach's  intellect 
and  temperament  may  have  been  opposed  at 
first  to  the  policy  which  brought  on  the  war, 
but  may  have,  nevertheless,  believed  that  his 
most  patriotic  course  would  be  to  remain  in 
the  Government  and  do  the  best  he  could  for 
the  public  benefit.  He  soon  found  himself 
compelled  to  perform  as  disagreeable  a  task  as 
an  enli2:htened  financial  statesman  could  have 
to  undertake  —  the  task  of  extracting  from  the 
already  overburdened  taxpayers  the  means  of 
carrying  on  a  war  of  conquest  with  which  he 
had  little  sympathy.  It  was  perfectly  evident 
that  the  needed  revenue  could  not  be  extracted 
from  the  country  without  some  violation  of 
those  financial  principles  to  which  Hicks-Beach 
had  long  been  attached.  There  was  no  time 
for  much  meditation  —  the  money  had  to  be 
found  somehow  —  and  a  great  part  of  it  could 
only  be  found  by  the  imposition  of  a  duty  on 
foreign  imports.  We  now  know  from  public 
statements  made  by  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach 
himself  that  while  the  war  was  going  on  he 
became  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  the 
whole  administration  of  the  military  department 

217 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

was  grossly  mismanaged,  and  that  the  money 
of  the  nation  was  thrown  away  when  the  War 
Office  came  to  spend  it.  The  conviction  thus 
forced  upon  him  could  not  have  tended  to  make 
the  task  of  providing  means  for  such  further 
expenditure  any  the  more  agreeable  to  him. 
We  may  assume  that  he  saw  no  other  course 
before  him  than  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  job 
and  try  to  find  in  the  least  objectionable  way 
the  amount  of  money  necessary  to  carry  on  the 
business  of  the  State.  It  was  evident  to  him 
that  the  principles  of  free  trade  must  be  put 
aside  for  the  present,  and  he  found  himself 
driven  to  the  odious  necessity  of  imposing  a 
duty  on  the  importation  of  foreign  corn,  a  duty 
which  in  fact  amounted  to  a  tax  on  bread. 
Hicks-Beach  well  knew  that  no  tax  could  be 
more  odious  to  the  poorer  classes  of  the  Brit- 
ish Islands;  but  we  may  presume  that  in  his 
emergency  he  could  see  no  other  way  of  raising 
the  money,  and  he  accepted  the  situation  with  a 
dogged  resolve  which  made  no  pretense  at  any 
concealment  of  his  personal  dislike  for  the  task. 
His  manner  of  delivering  the  speech  in  which 
he  set  forth  his  scheme  of  finance  was  that  of  a 
man  who  has  to  discharge  an  odious  duty,  or 
what  he  finds  himself  by  the  force  of  circum- 

218 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

stances  compelled  to  regard  as  a  duty,  but  will 
utter  no  word  which  might  seem  to  make  out 
that  he  has  any  excuse  other  than  that  of  hate- 
ful necessity.     The  substance  of  Hicks-Beach's 
explanations  on  this  part  of  his  budget  might 
be  summed  up  in  such  words  as  these :  "  We 
have  got  to  pay  for  this  war,  and  we  have  no 
time  to  spare  in  finding  the  money ;  we  must 
cast  aside  for  the  time  the  principles  of  free 
trade ;  but  do  not  let  us  further  degrade  our- 
selves by  hypocritical   attempts  to  make  out 
that  what  we  are  doing  is  in  accordance  with 
the  free-trade  doctrine."     I  remember  well  that 
on    reading    Hicks-Beach's    budget   speech    I 
became  deeply  impressed  with  the  conviction 
that  his  task  was  becoming  so  intolerable  to 
him  that  we  might  expect  before  long  to  see  a 
change  in  the  composition  of  the  Government. 
But  it  appeared  to  me  that,  as  the  debate  went 
on  and  the  days  went  on,  the  position  of  Hicks- 
Beach  was  becoming  more  and  more  difficult. 
Some  of  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  became 
to  all  appearance  suddenly  possessed  with  an 
inspiration  that  the  time  had  arrived  for  a  bold 
movement  of  reaction  against  the  long-accepted 
doctrines  of  free  trade.     The  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  had  already  receded  so  far  from  the 

219 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

established  policy  as  to  propose  the  imposition 
of  a  tax  on  the  imported  materials  for  making 
bread  ;  and  why,  therefore,  should  we  not  take 
advantage  —  thus  at  least  I  construed  their 
ideas  —  of  this  tempting  opportunity  to  intro- 
duce a  system  of  preferential  duties  and  an 
imitation  Zollverein  for  England  and  some  of 
her  colonies,  and  to  break  away  from  the  creed 
and  dogmas  of  men  like  Gladstone,  Cobden,  and 
Bright  ?  These  proposals  must  have  opened  to 
the  eyes  of  Hicks-Beach  a  vista  of  financial 
heresies  into  which  he  could  not  possibly  enter. 
He  probably  thought  that  he  had  gone  far 
enough  in  the  way  of  compromise  when  he 
consented  to  meet  immediate  emergencies  by 
the  imposition  of  a  bread-tax.  Is  it  possible 
that  he  may  have  felt  some  compunctious  visit- 
ing because  of  his  having  yielded  so  far  to  the 
necessities  of  the  moment  ?  However  that  may 
be,  I  take  it  for  granted,  and  took  it  for  granted 
at  the  time,  that  Hicks-Beach  found  the  incom- 
patibility between  his  own  views  as  to  the 
raising  of  revenue  and  the  views  beginning  to 
be  developed  by  some  of  his  colleagues  becom- 
ing more  and  more  difficult  to  reconcile. 

Let  me  venture  on  an  illustration,  although 
it   be  not  by  any  means  photographic  in  its 

220 


SIR   MICHAEL   HICKS-BEACH 

accuracy,  of  the  difficulty  with  which  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  found  himself  con- 
fronted. Let  us  suppose  Hicks-Beach  to  be 
the  leader  of  a  pledged  society  of  total  abstain- 
ers. At  a  moment  of  sudden  crisis  he  feels 
called  upon  to  relax  so  far  the  rigidity  of  the 
society's  governing  principle  as  to  allow  one  of 
its  members  who  is  threatened  with  utter  physi- 
cal prostration  a  few  drops  of  alcoholic  stimu- 
lant. He  finds  his  course  cordially  approved 
by  some  of  his  most  influential  colleagues,  and 
at  first  he  is  proud  of  their  support  But  it 
presently  turns  out  that  they  regard  his  reluc- 
tant concession  as  the  opening  up  of  a  new 
practice  in  their  regulations,  and  they  press 
upon  him  all  manner  of  propositions  for  the 
toleration  and  even  the  encouragement  of  what 
my  friend  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson,  the  great  Eng- 
lish champion  of  total  abstinence,  would  term 
"  moderate  drunkenness."  Fancy  what  the  feel- 
ings of  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  would  be  if  by  some 
temporary  and  apparently  needful  concession 
he  found  himself  regarded  by  those  around 
him  as  an  advocate  of  moderate  drunkenness ! 
Such,  I  cannot  help  thinking,  must  have  been, 
in  its  different  way,  the  condition  to  which 
Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  felt  himself  brought 

221 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

down,  when  he  discovered  that  his  introduction 
of  an  import  duty  on  foreign  grain  was  believed 
by  his  principal  colleagues  to  be  but  the  open- 
ing of  a  reactionary  movement  against  the 
whole  policy  of  free  trade. 

The  Government  of  Lord  Salisbury  seemed  to 
be  in  the  highest  good  spirits  at  the  prospects  be- 
fore them.  Mr.  Chamberlain  in  especial  seemed 
to  believe  that  the  time  had  come  for  him  to 
develop  an  entirely  new  system  of  his  own  for 
the  adjustment  of  import  and  export  duties. 
For  many  weeks  the  English  newspapers  were 
filled  with  discussions  on  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
great  project  for  the  new  British  Imperial  Zoll- 
verein,  of  which  England  was  to  be  the  head. 
Numbers  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  Conservative 
admirers  were  filled  with  a  fresh  enthusiasm 
for  the  man  who  thus  proposed  to  reverse 
altogether  the  decisions  of  all  modern  political 
economy  laid  down  by  Liberal  statesmen  and 
Radical  writers.  Stout  old  Tory  gentlemen 
representing  county  constituencies  began  to 
be  full  of  hope  that  the  good  old  times  were 
coming  back. 

That  was  the  crisis  —  so  far  at  least  as  the 
official  career  of  Sir  Michael  Hicks- Beach  was 
concerned  for  the  time.     What  may  have  hap- 

222 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

pened  in  the  private  councils  of  the  Govern- 
ment we  of  the  outer  world  were  not  and  are 
not  permitted  to  know.  All  that  we  actually 
do  know  is  that  Lord  Salisbury  resigned  his 
place  as  Prime  Minister,  that  Arthur  Balfour 
was  called  to  succeed  him  in  office,  and  that 
a  new  administration  was  formed  in  which  the 
name  of  Hicks-Beach  did  not  appear.  There 
were  other  changes  also  made  in  the  adminis- 
tration, but  with  these  I  shall  not  for  the 
present  concern  myself.  The  important  fact 
for  this  article  is  that  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach 
was  no  longer  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
All  manner  of  conjectures  were  made  as  to 
the  reasons  why  Lord  Salisbury  so  suddenly 
withdrew  from  the  position  of  Prime  Minister, 
and  why  he  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to 
hold  the  place  even  nominally  until  after  King 
Edward's  coronation.  I  do  not  suppose  that 
the  resignation  of  Lord  Salisbury  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  fact  that  Sir  Michael 
Hicks-Beach  ceased  to  be  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer.  The  vacancies  were  not  made 
simultaneously,  nor  did  there  appear  any  reason 
to  believe  that  Hicks-Beach  was  so  closely 
identified  with  the  political  fortunes  of  Lord 
Salisbury  as  to  be  unable  to  remain  in  office 

223 


'    BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

when  his  leader  had  ceased  to  hold  the  place 
of  command.  So  far  as  an  outsider  can  judge, 
it  must  have  been  that  Hicks-Beach  could  not 
get  on  with  the  new  administration,  or  that  the 
new  administration  could  not  get  on  with  him. 
My  own  theory,  and  I  only  offer  it  to  my  read- 
ers as  the  theory  of  a  mere  observer  from  the 
outside,  is  that  Hicks-Beach  could  not  stand 
any  more  of  the  reaction  towards  protection 
principles  —  thought  he  had  gone  quite  as  far 
as  any  sense  of  duty  to  his  party  could  exact 
from  him,  and  made  up  his  mind  that  if  his 
colleagues  were  anxious  to  go  any  farther  in 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  wrong  direction 
they  must  do  so  without  any  help  or  counte- 
nance from  him. 

This  theory  has  taken  a  firmer  hold  than 
ever  of  my  mind  since  I  read  the  report  of  a 
speech  lately  made  by  Hicks-Beach  weeks  and 
weeks  after  he  had  ceased  to  be  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer.  That  recent  speech  might  have 
been  made  by  a  member  of  the  Liberal  Opposi- 
tion. Certainly  in  some  of  its  most  important 
and  striking  passages  it  enunciated  opinions 
and  laid  down  doctrines  which  might  have  come 
from  almost  any  of  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Ban- 
nerman's  colleagues  on  the  front  Opposition 

224 


SIR   MICHAEL    HICKS-BEACH 

bench.  It  denounced  extravagant  war  expendi- 
ture at  a  time  when  Imperialist  poHticians  were 
calling  out  for  something  very  like  military- 
conscription,  and  it  insisted  that  the  defense  of 
England  by  the  strength  of  her  navy  ought  to 
be  the  main  consideration  of  English  states- 
manship. That  is  a  doctrine  which  used  to 
be  proclaimed  in  distant  days  by  such  men  as 
Cobden  and  Bright,  which  soon  became  an  ac- 
cepted principle  among  all  genuine  Liberals,  but 
has  lately  been  repudiated  by  all  Imperialists, 
Liberal  or  Tory,  who  seem  to  think  that  the 
one  great  business  of  English  statesmanship  is 
to  turn  England  into  a  military  encampment. 
The  natural  and  reasonable  conclusion  to  be 
drawn  from  such  a  speech  is  that  during  the 
last  session  or  two  of  Parliament  Hicks-Beach 
found  it  impossible  to  put  up  any  longer  with 
the  reign  of  Jingo  principles  in  the  Cabinet, 
and  made  up  his  mind  to  set  himself  free  from 
such  a  domination.  The  Tory  Government 
has  lost  its  ablest  financial  administrator,  and 
Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  has  regained  his 
position  of  independence. 

The  future  must  tell  the  story  of  Hicks- 
Beach's  remaining  career.  That  he  has  yet  an 
important  career  before  him  may  be  taken  for 

225 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

granted  if  only  the  fates  allow  him  the  ordinary- 
length  of  man's  life.  Nothing  but  absolute 
retirement  from  Parliamentary  work  could  re- 
duce such  a  man  to  a  position  of  complete 
neutrality,  or  could  prevent  him  from  having 
an  influence  which  the  leaders  of  both  political 
parties  must  take  into  consideration.  He  is 
too  strong  in  debate,  too  well  trained  in  the 
business  of  administration,  and  too  quick  in 
observing  the  real  import  of  growing  political 
changes,  and  in  distinguishing  between  them 
and  the  mere  displays  of  ephemeral  emotion, 
not  to  make  his  influence  felt  at  any  great  crisis 
in  the  conditions  of  political  parties.  I  hold, 
therefore,  to  the  hope  expressed  at  the  opening 
of  this  article,  that  il  reviendra  —  that  Sir 
Michael  Hicks-Beach  will  come  back  before 
long  to  an  important  place  in  some  adminis- 
tration. The  House  of  Commons  could  not 
afford  just  now  to  lose  the  services  of  such  a 
man,  and  I  take  it  for  granted  that  Hicks- 
Beach  could  not  remain  long  in  the  House  of 
Commons  without  being  called  upon  to  accept 
an  offlcial  position.  He  is  beyond  question 
one  of  the  very  ablest  men  on  the  side  of  the 
Government  in  that  House,  and  his  integrity, 
his  moderation,  his  capacity  to  understand  the 

226 


SIR   MICHAEL   HICKS-BEACH 

significance  of  new  facts,  and  his  disinterested- 
ness have  won  for  him  the  respect  of  all  parties 
in  Parliament  and  outside  it.  We  are,  to  all 
appearance,  on  the  eve  of  great  changes  in  the 
composition  of  our  political  parties.  With  the 
close  of  the  war  has  come  to  an  end  that  sea- 
son of  Jingoism  which  brought  so  many  weak- 
minded  Liberals  into  fascinated  co-operation 
with  the  Tories.  The  reaction  against  Toryism 
must  come,  and  it  will  probably  bring  with  it 
a  reconstitution  of  both  parties  on  the  prin- 
ciples which  each  may  consider  essential  to  its 
character  at  a  time  when  peace  at  home  gives 
our  legislators  a  chance  of  studying  the  domes- 
tic welfare  of  the  people  in  these  islands.  It 
will  not  be  enough  then  for  a  public  man  to 
proclaim  himself  Imperialist  in  order  to  win 
the  votes  of  a  constituency,  or  to  denounce  his 
rival  as  a  pro-Boer  in  order  to  secure  defeat  for 
that  unlucky  personage.  The  constituencies 
will  begin  to  ask  what  each  candidate  proposes 
to  do  for  the  domestic  prosperity  of  our  popu- 
lations at  home,  and  to  demand  an  explicit 
answer.  Under  such  conditions,  whatever  be 
the  reconstitution  of  parties,  I  am  strongly  of 
opinion  that  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  will  be- 
fore long  begin  a  new  administrative  career. 

22^ 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 


Photograph  eopyright  by  Elliott  S:  Fry 

JOHN    E.  REDMOND 


JOHN    E.   REDMOND 

John  Edward  Redmond  is  one  of  the  lead- 
ing men  in  the  House  of  Commons  just  now. 
He  is  one  of  the  very  few  really  eloquent  speak- 
ers of  whom  the  House  can  boast  at  the  present 
time.  His  eloquence  is,  indeed,  of  a  kind  but 
rarely  heard  in  either  House  of  Parliament 
during  recent  years.  The  ordinary  style  of 
debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  becoming 
more  and  more  of  the  merely  conversational 
order,  and  even  when  the  speaker  is  very  much 
in  earnest,  even  when  he  is  carried  away  by 
the  fervor  of  debate,  his  emotion  is  apt  to  ex- 
press itself  rather  in  an  elevation  of  the  voice 
than  in  an  exaltation  of  the  style.  Among 
members  of  the  House  who  may  be  still  re- 
garded as  having  a  career  before  them  I  do  not 
think  there  are  more  than  three  or  four  who 
are  capable  of  making  a  really  eloquent  speech 
—  a  speech  which  is  worth  hearing  for  its  style 
and  its  language  as  well  as  for  its  information 
and  its  argument.     John  Redmond  is  one  of 

231 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

these  gifted  few ;  Lloyd-George  is  another.  I 
have  heard  some  critics  depreciate  John  Red- 
mond's eloquence  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
rather  old-fashioned.  If  it  be  old-fashioned  to 
express  one's  meaning  in  polished  and  well- 
balanced  sentences,  in  brilliant  phrasing,  and 
with  melodious  utterance,  then  I  have  to  admit 
that  John  Redmond  is  not,  in  his  style  of  elo- 
quence, quite  up  to  the  present  fashion,  and  I 
can  only  say  that  it  is  so  much  the  worse  for 
the  present  fashion.  It  is  quite  certain  that 
Redmond  is  accepted  by  the  House  of  Commons 
in  general  as  one  of  its  most  eloquent  speakers 
and  one  of  its  ablest  party  leaders. 

Redmond  has  already  been  some  twenty 
years  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  was  a 
very  young  man  when  first  chosen  to  represent 
an  Irish  constituency  in  the  House.  I  have 
noticed  that  our  biographical  dictionaries  of 
contemporary  life  do  not  agree  as  to  the  date 
of  Redmond's  birth.  Some  of  the  books  set 
him  down  as  born  in  185 1,  while  others  give 
the  year  of  his  birth  as  1856.  I  think  I  have 
good  reason  for  knowing  that  the  latter  date  is 
the  correct  one.  Perhaps  it  ought  to  bring  a 
sense  of  gratification  to  a  public  man  when  a 
dispute  arises  as  to  the  date  of  his  birth.     It 

232 


JOHN    E.   REDMOND 

may  give  him  a  complacent  reminder  of  the 
fact  that  certain  cities  disputed  as  to  Homer's 
birthplace. 

John  Redmond  comes  of  a  good  family,  and 
his  father  was  for  a  long  time  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  I  can  remember  the  elder 
Redmond  very  well,  and  he  was  a  man  of  the 
most  courteous  bearing  and  polished  manners, 
a  man  of  education  and  capacity,  who,  when- 
ever he  spoke  in  debate,  spoke  well  and  to  the 
point,  and  was  highly  esteemed  by  all  parties 
in  the  House.  John  Redmond  was  educated 
at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  studied  for  the  law 
and  was  called  to  the  bar,  but  did  not  practice 
in  the  profession.  He  was  elected  to  the  House 
of  Commons  in  1881,  and  became  a  member 
of  that  National  party  which  had  been  formed 
not  long  before  under  the  guidance  of  Charles 
Stewart  Parnell.  From  the  time  when  he  first 
took  part  in  a  Parliamentary  debate  it  was  evi- 
dent that  John  Redmond  had  inherited  his 
father's  graceful  manner  of  speaking,  and  it  was 
soon  discovered  that  he  possessed  a  faculty  of 
genuine  eloquence  which  had  not  been  dis- 
played by  the  elder  Redmond.  John  Redmond 
had  and  still  has  a  voice  of  remarkable  strength, 
volume,  and  variety  of  intonation,  and  he  was 

^11 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

soon  afforded  ample  opportunity  of  testing  his 
capacity  for  public  speech.  It  was  a  great  part 
of  Parnell's  policy  that  there  should  be  a  power- 
ful Home  Rule  organization  extending  itself 
over  all  parts  of  Great  Britain,  founding  insti- 
tutions in  all  the  principal  cities  and  towns,  and 
addressing  audiences  indoors  and  out  on  the 
subject  of  Ireland's  demand  for  domestic  self- 
government.  John  Redmond  soon  became  one 
of  the  most  effective  organizers  of  this  new 
movement  and  one  of  the  most  powerful  plead- 
ers of  the  cause  on  public  platforms.  The  first 
time  I  ever  heard  him  make  a  speech  in  public 
was  at  a  great  open-air  meeting  held  in  Hyde 
Park.  He  had  to  address  a  vast  crowd,  and  I 
felt  naturally  anxious  to  know  what  his  suc- 
cess might  be  under  such  trying  conditions 
for  a  young  speaker.  He  had  then  but  a  slen- 
der frame,  and  his  somewhat  delicately  molded 
features  did  not  suggest  the  idea  of  great  lung- 
power.  After  his  first  sentence  I  felt  no 
further  doubt  as  to  his  physical  capacity.  He 
had  a  magnificent  voice,  clear,  resonant,  and 
thrilling,  which  made  itself  heard  all  over  the 
crowd  without  the  slightest  apparent  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  speaker.  I  could  not  help  being 
struck  at  the   time   by  the   seeming  contrast 

234 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

between  the  boyish,  delicate  figure  and  the  easy 
strength  of  the  resonant  voice. 

During  his  earlier  sessions  in  the  House  of 
Commons  Redmond  did  not  speak  very  often, 
but  when  he  did  speak  he  made  it  clear  that  he 
had  at  his  command  a  gift  of  genuine  elo- 
quence. He  held  office  as  one  of  the  whips  of 
the  Irish  National  party  —  that  is  to  say,  as 
one  of  the  chosen  officials  whose  duty  it  is  to 
look  after  the  arrangements  of  the  party,  to  see 
that  its  members  are  always  in  their  places  at 
the  right  time,  to  settle  as  to  the  speakers  who 
are  to  take  part  in  each  debate,  and  to  enter 
into  any  necessary  communications  with  the 
whips  of  the  other  parties  in  the  House.  Red- 
mond was  a  man  admirably  suited  for  such 
work.  He  had  had  an  excellent  education; 
he  had  the  polished  manners  of  good  society; 
he  belonged  to  what  I  may  call  the  country 
gentleman  order,  and  could  ride  to  hounds 
with  a  horsemanship  which  must  have  won  the 
respect  of  the  Tory  squires  from  the  hunting 
counties ;  and  he  had  an  excellent  capacity  and 
memory  for  all  matters  of  arrangement  and 
detail.  He  attended  to  his  duties  as  one  of  the 
party  whips  with  unfailing  regularity,  and  could 
exercise  with  equal  skill   and  effect  the  influ- 

235 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

ence  of  persuasiveness  and  that  of  official  com- 
mand. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Parnell  party  there 
was  not,  to  be  sure,  any  great  demand  on  the 
marshaling  power  of  the  whips  over  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  little  army.  For  a  considerable 
time  the  whole  Parnellite  party  did  not  consist 
of  more  than  ten  or  a  dozen  members.  These 
members,  however,  were  compelled  to  do  con- 
stant duty,  and  to  maintain  the  great  game  of 
Parliamentary  obstruction  revived  by  Parnell  at 
all  hours  of  the  day  and  the  night.  It  was  quite 
a  common  thing  for  a  member  of  the  party  to 
deliver  a  dozen  or  fifteen  speeches  in  the  course 
of  a  single  sitting,  and  John  Redmond  had  all  his 
work  to  do  in  endeavoring  to  keep  exhausted  col- 
leagues up  to  their  business  and  to  see  that  they 
did  not  leave  the  precincts  of  the  House  until 
Mr.  Speaker  should  have  formally  announced 
that  the  day's  sitting  was  over.  Redmond's  ser- 
vices were  of  inestimable  value  during  such  a 
period  of  trial.  As  the  days  went  on,  the  Irish 
constituencies  became  more  and  more  aroused 
to  the  necessity  of  increasing  as  far  as  possible 
the  number  of  thoroughgoing  Parnellites  in  the 
House  by  getting  rid,  at  every  election,  of  the 
Irish   members  —  Irish   Whigs   as   they  were 

236 


JOHN    E.   REDMOND 

called  —  who  did  not  go  in  thoroughly,  heart 
and  soul,  for  the  policy  of  Parnell.  Under  such 
conditions  the  influence  and  the  eloquence  of 
John  Redmond  were  of  the  most  substantial 
service  to  his  party  in  the  work  of  stirring  up 
the  national  sentiment  among  the  Irish  popula- 
tions in  the  cities  and  towns  of  England  and 
Scotland.  Before  many  years  had  passed,  John 
Redmond  was  one  of  the  whips  of  an  Irish 
National  party  in  the  House  of  Commons 
which  numbered  nearly  ninety  members.  The 
increase  of  official  duties  thus  put  upon  him 
and  his  brother  whips  did  not  seem  to  trouble 
him  in  the  slightest  degree.  He  was  always  on 
duty  in  the  House,  unless  when  he  had  to  be  on 
duty  at  some  public  meeting  outside  its  pre- 
cincts ;  he  was  ever  in  good  spirits ;  could 
always  give  his  chief  the  fullest  and  most  exact 
information  as  to  the  conditions  of  each  debate, 
and  the  best  methods  of  getting  full  use  of  the 
numbers  and  the  debating  strength  of  the  Irish 
party  at  any  given  moment. 

During  the  greater  part  of  this  time  he  had 
not  had  much  opportunity  of  cultivating  his 
faculty  as  a  debater,  for  the  whip  of  a  party  is 
understood  to  be  occupied  rather  in  putting 
other  men  up  to  speak  than  in  displaying  elo- 

2Z7 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

quence  of  his  own,  and  it  was  for  several  years 
not  quite  understood  by  the  party  that  John 
Redmond  was  qualified  to  be  and  was  destined 
to  be  one  of  its  most  commanding  spokesmen.  I 
ought  to  say  that  among  other  duties  discharged 
by  John  Redmond  was  the  trying  and  respon- 
sible task  of  traveling  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion over  the  United  States  and  Canada  and 
Australia  to  preach  the  Home  Rule  gospel  to 
the  Irish  populations  in  those  countries  and  to 
all  others  who  would  listen,  and  thus  to  obtain 
the  utmost  possible  support  for  the  great  move- 
ment at  home.  For  many  sessions,  however, 
John  Redmond  was  regarded  by  his  colleagues 
in  the  House  as  a  speaker  best  heard  to  advan- 
tage on  some  great  public  platform  outside  the 
Parliamentary  precincts,  and  very  few  of  them 
indeed  had  yet  formed  the  idea  that  he  was  also 
qualified  to  become  one  of  the  foremost  orators 
in  the  representative  chamber  itself. 

I  may  mention  here  that  Mr.  Redmond's  in- 
timate knowledge  of  the  rules  and  practices  of 
the  House  and  his  thorough  acquaintance  with 
its  business  ways  were,  in  great  measure,  due  to 
his  having  held  for  a  time  a  place  in  one  of  the 
offices  belonging  to  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  was  appointed,  before  he  became  a  member 

238 


JOHN    E.   REDMOND 

of  the  House,  a  clerk  in  the  Vote  Office,  a  de- 
partment which  has  to  do  with  the  preparation 
of  Parliamentary  documents,  the  distribution  of 
Parliamentary  papers,  and  other  such  technical 
work.  The  clerkships  in  these  offices  are  in 
the  gift  of  the  Speaker,  are  an  avenue  towards 
the  highest  promotions  in  the  official  staff  of 
the  House,  and  are  usually  given  to  young  men 
who,  in  addition  to  high  education  and  a  pro- 
mise of  capacity,  can  bring  some  Parliamentary 
or  family  influence  to  bear  on  their  behalf. 
John  Redmond  had  some  experience  in  this 
Vote  Office,  and  it  made  him  a  thorough  mas- 
ter of  Parliamentary  business.  I  had  enjoyed 
his  personal  acquaintance  for  some  time  before 
he  came  into  the  House  as  a  member,  and  I 
had  been  in  the  House  myself  some  two  years 
before  his  election.  I  remember  often  seeing 
him  and  exchanging  a  word  with  him  as  he 
stood  within  the  House  itself,  but  just  below 
the  line  which  marks  the  place  where  the  bar 
of  the  House  is  erected  when  there  is  occasion, 
for  any  public  purpose,  to  admit  a  stranger  thus 
far  and  no  farther,  in  order  that  he  may  plead 
some  cause  before  the  House  or  present  some 
petition.  Officials  employed  in  any  of  the  of- 
fices belonging  to  the  House  are  allowed  the 

239 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

proud  privilege  of  advancing  up  the  floor  of  the 
chamber  as  far  as  the  chair  occupied  by  the  Ser- 
geant-at-Arms,  the  point  at  which  the  bar  would 
be  drawn  across  if  occasion  should  require. 
Thus  I  had  the  opportunity  of  conversing  with 
John  Redmond  on  the  floor  of  the  House  itself, 
before  he  had  yet  obtained  the  right  of  passing 
beyond  the  sacred  line  of  the  bar. 

I  am  quite  certain  that  Parnell  himself  did 
not,  until  the  great  crisis  came  in  the  Irish  Na- 
tional party,  fully  appreciate  the  political  capa- 
city of  John  Redmond.  Parnell  always  regarded 
him  as  both  useful  and  ornamental  —  useful  in 
managing  the  business  of  the  party,  and  orna- 
mental as  a  brilliant  speaker  on  a  public  plat- 
form. But  he  did  not  appear  to  know,  and  had 
indeed  no  means  of  knowing,  that  Redmond 
had  in  himself  the  qualifications  of  a  party  leader 
and  the  debating  power  which  could  make  him 
an  influence  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
speeches  which  Redmond  made,  or  rather  was 
"  put  up  "  by  his  leader  to  make,  in  the  House, 
had  often  for  their  object  merely  to  fill  up  time 
and  keep  a  debate  going  until  the  moment  ar- 
rived when  Parnell  thought  a  division  ought  to 
be  taken.  But  when  the  great  crisis  came  in  the 
affairs  of  the  party,  then  Redmond  was  soon 

240 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

able  to  prove  himself  made  of  stronger  metal 
than  even  his  leader  had  supposed.  The  crisis 
was,  of  course,  when  the  Parnell  divorce  case 
came  on,  and  Gladstone  and  the  Liberal  leaders 
generally  became  filled  with  the  conviction  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  carry  a  measure  of 
Home  Rule  if  Parnell  were  to  retain  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Irish  National  party.  I  need  not 
go  over  this  old  and  painful  story  again ;  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  great  majority  of  Par- 
nell's  own  followers  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  believe  that  it  would  be  better  for 
Ireland  if  Parnell  were  to  resign  the  leadership 
and  retire  into  private  life  for  a  certain  time. 
This  Parnell  refused  to  do,  and,  in  opposition 
to  the  earnest  wishes  of  the  majority  of  his  fol- 
lowers, he  published  a  sort  of  manifesto  in 
denunciation  of  Gladstone.  Then  came  the 
famous  meetings  of  the  Irish  party  in  Commit- 
tee-Room No.  1 5  —  one  of  the  committee-rooms 
belonging  to  the  House  of  Commons  —  and, 
after  long  days  of  angry  and  sometimes  even 
fierce  debate,  the  great  majority  of  the  party 
declared  that  they  could  no  longer  follow  the 
leadership  of  Parnell.  The  minority  made  up 
their  minds  to  hold  with  Parnell  for  good  or 
evil. 

241 


BRITISH  POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

I  am  willing  and  always  was  willing  to  ren- 
der full  justice  to  the  motives  which  inspired 
the  action  of  the  minority.  They  did  not  feel 
themselves  called  upon  to  justify  every  act  of 
Parnell's  private  life,  but  they  took  the  position 
that  his  private  life  had  nothing  to  do  with  his 
political  career,  and  that  they  could  not  aban- 
don the  leader  who  had  done  such  service  to 
Ireland  merely  because  his  name  had  become 
associated  with  a  public  scandal.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  majority  of  the  party,  of  whom  I  was 
one,  held  that  their  first  duty  was  to  their  coun- 
try, and  that  if  the  continued  leadership  of  Par- 
nell  rendered  it  impossible  for  Gladstone  to 
carry  his  Home  Rule  measure,  they  had  to 
think  only  of  their  country  and  its  national 
cause.  During  all  these  debates  in  Committee- 
Room  No.  15,  John  Redmond  took  the  leading 
part  on  the  side  of  the  minority.  He  became 
the  foremost  champion  of  Parnell's  leadership. 
This  position  seemed  to  come  to  him  as  if  in  the 
nature  of  things.  I  well  remember  the  ability 
and  eloquence  which  he  displayed  in  these  de- 
bates, and  the  telling  manner  in  which  he  put 
his  arguments  and  his  appeals.  The  course  he 
took  was  all  the  more  to  his  credit  because 
Parnell  had  never  singled  him  out  as  an  object 

242 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

of  especial  favor,  and,  indeed,  in  the  opinion  of 
many  among  us,  had  not  done  full  justice  to  his 
services  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Then 
came  the  formal  division  of  the  party.  The 
majority  met  together  and  reconstituted  the 
party  with  a  new  Chairman,  while  the  minority 
associated  themselves  with  Parnell  as  their 
leader  for  the  purpose  of  going  over  to  Ireland 
and  endeavoring  to  organize  the  country  in  his 
support.  When  the  end  of  the  fierce  open 
controversy  was  brought  about  at  last  by  Par- 
nell's  sudden  death,  John  Redmond  was  made 
the  leader  of  the  minority,  and  from  that  time 
forth  he  began  to  give  more  and  more  distinct 
evidences  of  his  capacity  for  a  Parliamentary 
leader's  position.  He  and  his  group  of  followers 
kept  themselves  in  the  House  of  Commons  en- 
tirely apart  from  their  former  colleagues.  John 
Redmond  had  often  to  take  a  part  in  the  de- 
bates of  the  House,  and  every  one  could  see 
that  the  serious  responsibility  imposed  on  him 
was  developing  in  him  qualities  of  leadership, 
and  even  of  statesmanship,  which  very  few  in- 
deed had  previously  believed  to  be  among  his 
gifts. 

Meanwhile  the  state  of  things  created  in  Ire- 
land by  the  split  and  the  setting  up  of  two 

243 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

opposing  parties  was  becoming  intolerable. 
Every  man  of  patriotic  feeling  on  either  side 
of  the  controversy  was  coming  to  see  more 
keenly  every  day  that  the  maintenance  of  such 
a  division  must  be  fatal  to  the  cause,  for  at 
least  another  generation.  Some  efforts  were 
made  by  the  leading  men  on  both  sides  to  bring 
about  a  process  of  reconciliation.  John  Dillon 
on  the  one  side,  and  John  Redmond  on  the 
other,  lent  every  help  they  could  to  these  patri- 
otic efforts.  John  Dillon  had  by  this  time  be- 
come leader  of  the  more  numerous  party,  having 
been  chosen  to  that  position  when  the  leader 
elected  after  the  severance  from  Parnell  had 
been  compelled  by  ill  health  to  resign  the 
place.  Every  reasonable  man  among  the  Irish 
Nationalists,  inside  and  outside  Parliament,  was 
coming  more  and  more  to  see  that  there  was  no 
longer  any  occasion  whatever  for  further  sever- 
ance, and  that  the  country  demanded  a  return 
to  the  old  principle  of  union  in  the  National 
ranks.  John  Dillon  became  impressed  with 
the  conviction  that  it  might  tend  to  smooth 
matters  and  to  open  a  better  chance  for  recon- 
ciliation if  he,  as  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
anti-Parnellites,  were  to  resign  his  position,  and 
to   invite  the  whole  party  to   come   together 

244 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

again  and  elect  a  leader.  Dillon  was  strongly 
of  opinion  that,  as  all  matter  of  controversy  had 
been  buried  in  the  early  grave  of  Parnell,  it 
would  be  better  for  the  cause  of  future  union 
that  the  new  leader  should  be  chosen  from 
among  the  small  number  of  men  who  had 
always  adhered  to  Parnell's  side.  Dillon  pre- 
vailed upon  most  of  his  friends  to  adopt  his 
views  on  this  subject.  It  was  the  custom  of 
the  Irish  National  party  —  indeed,  of  both  the 
parties  —  to  elect  their  leader  at  the  opening 
of  each  session,  and  John  Dillon  had  been  re- 
elected more  than  once  to  the  position  of  com- 
mand in  his  own  party.  Accordingly,  at  the 
close  of  a  session  Dillon  announced  his  inten- 
tion to  resign  the  place  of  leader,  and  he  added 
to  the  announcement  that  he  would  not  then 
accept  re-election,  even  if  it  should  be  offered 
to  him  by  a  vote  of  his  party.  This  patriotic 
course  of  action  was  most  happy  in  its  results. 
The  Irish  National  members  met  together  once 
again  as  a  united  party,  and  the  leadership  was 
conferred  on  John  Redmond  as  an  evidence 
alike  of  the  confidence  which  was  felt  in  his 
capacity  and  his  sincerity,  and  a  proof  of  the 
desire  entertained  by  the  majority  for  a  thor- 
ough and  cordial  reunion  of  the  whole  party. 

245 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

John  Redmond  was  therefore  the  first  leader 
of  the  whole  party  since  the  events  of  Com- 
mittee-Room No.  15.  John  Dillon  and  his 
immediate  predecessor  had  been  only  leaders 
of  a  majority,  and  now  John  Redmond  was 
chosen  as  the  leader  of  the  whole  party  repre- 
senting the  Irish  National  cause  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  He  settled  down  at  once  to  his 
new  position  with  a  temper  and  spirit  admir- 
ably suited  to  the  work  he  had  to  undertake. 
He  seemed  to  have  put  away  from  his  mind 
all  memory  of  disunion  in  the  party,  and  he 
became  once  more  the  friend  as  well  as  the 
leader  of  every  member  enrolled  in  its  ranks. 
Many  of  those  who  formed  the  majority  had 
in  the  first  instance  only  yielded  to  the  per- 
suasion of  John  Dillon  and  others  in  the  elec- 
tion of  Redmond  as  leader  merely  because  they 
believed  that  by  such  a  course  the  interests  of 
the  cause  could  best  be  served  just  then.  But 
I  know  that  some  of  these  men  accepted  with 
personal  reluctance  what  seemed  to  be  the 
necessity  of  the  hour,  and  looked  forward  with 
anything  but  gratification  to  the  prospect  of 
having  to  serve  under  the  new  chief.  John 
Redmond,  while  defending  the  cause  of  the 
still  living  Parnell,  had  shown  in  the  service 

246 


JOHN    E.   REDMOND 

of  his  chief  an  energy  and  a  passion  which  few 
of  us  could  have  expected  of  him,  and  was 
often  utterly  unsparing  in  his  denunciation  of 
the  men  who  maintained  the  other  side  of  the 
controversy.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  many  of 
his  former  opponents  should  feel  some  doubt 
as  to  the  possibility  of  working  harmoniously 
under  the  leadership  of  a  man  who  had  been 
but  lately  so  bitter  an  opponent.  I  had,  at  the 
time  of  the  new  leadership,  been  compelled  by 
ill  health  to  give  up  all  active  part  in  public 
life,  but  I  talked  with  many  members  of  the 
majority  in  the  Irish  party  who  told  me  frankly 
that  they  feared  it  would  not  be  possible  to 
get  on  under  the  leadership  of  John  Redmond. 
Before  long,  however,  these  same  men  spon- 
taneously assured  me  that  they  had  changed 
their  opinions  on  that  subject,  and  were  glad 
to  find  that  they  could  work  with  Redmond 
in  perfect  harmony,  and  that  his  manner  and 
bearing  showed  no  sign  whatever  of  any  bitter 
memories  belonging  to  the  days  of  internal 
dispute.  Redmond  devoted  himself  absolutely 
to  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  business  of 
leadership,  unless  indeed  when  some  pressing 
national  interests  compelled  him  to  leave  his 
place  in  St.  Stephen's  in  order  to  see  to  the 

247 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

organization  of  the  National  cause  in  Ireland 
or  in  the  United  States.  At  the  time  when 
I  am  writing  this  article  he  has  but  lately  re- 
turned from  a  visit  of  that  kind  to  some  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  American  Republic. 

Fortunately  for  his  country  as  well  as  for 
himself,  John  Redmond  is  a  man  of  private 
means,  is  not  compelled  to  earn  a  living,  and 
can  devote  the  whole  of  his  time  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  National  cause.  He  is  always  to 
be  found  at  his  post  while  the  House  of  Com- 
mons is  sitting,  and  I  believe  that  his  morning 
ride  in  Hyde  Park  with  his  wife  every  day  is 
one  of  the  few  recreations  in  which  he  allows 
himself  to  indulge.  I  had  not  long  ago  a  visit 
from  a  well-known  member  of  the  Irish  Par- 
liamentary party  who  holds  one  of  its  official 
positions  and  was  at  the  time  of  the  internal 
dispute  an  uncompromising  opponent  of  Par- 
nell's  continued  rule.  This  friend  of  mine  I 
know  was  decidedly  opposed  at  first  to  the 
election  of  John  Redmond  as  leader,  for  the 
reason  that  he  did  not  believe  such  an  arrange- 
ment could  possibly  work  with  smoothness  and 
satisfaction  to  the  party.  But  when  I  saw 
him  lately,  he  assured  me  that  he  had  entirely 
changed  his  opinions  and  that  he  did  not  be- 

248 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

lieve  any  party  could  possibly  have  a  better 
leader  than  John  Redmond  had  already  proved 
himself  to  be.  He  had  nothing  but  praise  for 
Redmond's  bearing  and  ways,  for  the  manner 
in  which  he  appeared  to  have  banished  from 
his  mind  all  memory  of  past  disunion,  and  for 
the  unremitting  attention  with  which  he  de- 
voted himself  to  the  work  of  the  party  inside 
and  outside  the  House  of  Commons. 

Since  then  I  have  heard  and  read  nothing  but 
good  accounts  of  the  manner  in  which  Red- 
mond has  reorganized  the  party.  It  has  under 
his  guidance  become  once  again  a  powerful 
force  in  political  life.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons, as  a  whole,  has  thoroughly  recognized 
Redmond's  position,  influence,  and  capacity. 
The  Prime  Minister  has  given  many  proofs  of 
the  importance  which  he  attaches  to  Redmond's 
decisions  and  movements.  The  new  leader  of 
the  Irish  party  has  won  a  much  higher  rank  as  a 
Parliamentary  debater  than  he  ever  had  attained 
to  in  the  days  before  he  had  become  invested 
with  a  really  grave  responsibility.  The  news- 
paper critics  on  all  sides  of  political  life  are 
agreed  in  describing  him  as  one  of  the  foremost 
living  debaters.  Indeed,  there  are  but  three  or 
four  men  in  the  House  of  Commons  who  could 

249 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

possibly  be  compared  with  him  for  eloquence 
and  skill  in  debate,  and  there  is  a  quality  of 
grace  and  artistic  form  in  his  style  of  eloquence 
which  often  recalls  the  memories  of  brighter 
days,  when  the  art  of  oratory  was  still  culti- 
vated in  Parliament.  The  success  with  which 
he  has  conducted  the  movements  of  his  party 
has  compelled  Ministerialists  and  Opposition 
alike  to  take  serious  account  of  Redmond  and 
his  followers  when  the  chances  of  any  great 
political  measure  are  under  consideration.  Only 
quite  lately,  during  the  passage  of  the  Educa- 
tion measure,  he  adopted  a  policy  which  at  first 
greatly  puzzled  his  opponents,  and  at  the  last 
moment  succeeded  in  impressing  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  Ministerial  party  generally  with 
the  conviction  that  Redmond  understands  when 
and  how  to  strike  a  decisive  blow. 

Of  course  we  hear  sometimes,  and  of  late 
rather  often,  about  differences  in  the  Irish  party 
itself,  and  about  a  threatened  secession  from 
John  Redmond's  leadership.  The  Tory  papers 
in  England,  and  even  some  of  the  journals 
which  are  professedly  Liberal,  made  eager  use 
of  this  supposed  dissension,  and  endeavored  to 
persuade  themselves  and  their  readers  that  Red- 
mond has  not  a  full  hold  over  his  followers  and 

250 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

over  the  Irish  people.  I  may  tell  my  American 
readers  that  they  will  do  well  not  to  attach  the 
slightest  importance  to  these  stories  about  a 
threatened  secession  from  the  lately  reunited 
Irish  National  party.  In  the  first  place,  I 
never  heard  of  any  political  party  which  did 
not  inclose  in  its  ranks  some  men  who  could 
not  always  be  reckoned  on  as  amenable  to 
the  discipline  which  is  found  necessary  in 
every  political  organization.  There  is  a  con- 
siderable number  of  Liberal  members  who  can- 
not be  counted  on  to  follow  at  all  times  the 
guidance  of  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman. 
There  are  many  Ministerialists,  and  some  of 
them  very  clever  men,  who  have  lately  been 
proving  that  at  times  they  would  just  as  soon 
vote  against  Arthur  Balfour  as  with  him.  But 
in  regard  to  the  Irish  party  and  the  members 
who  do  not  always  fall  in  with  the  wish  of  its 
leader,  the  actual  facts  are  peculiar.  The  only 
members  of  the  party  who  have  lately  been 
showing  a  tendency  to  mutiny  are,  with  one 
exception,  men  of  no  account  whatever  in  Ire- 
land's political  life.  I  do  not  wish  to  name  any 
names,  but  I  can  state  with  deliberation  that 
almost  every  one  of  the  mutinous  members  just 
now  is  a  man  who  has  not  the  slightest  chance 

251 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

of  ever  again  being  sent  to  represent  an  Irish 
constituency  in  the  House  of  Commons.  These 
men  have  long  since  forfeited  the  confidence  of 
their  constituents  and  their  fellow-countrymen. 
They  are  perfectly  aware  of  this  fact;  they 
know  quite  well  that  the  next  general  election 
will  see  them  put  out  of  Parliamentary  life ; 
and,  in  despair  of  re-election, they  probably  think 
that  they  might  as  well  make  the  most  of  the 
opportunity  for  rendering  themselves  conspicu- 
ous or  for  indulging  in  eccentricities  which  now 
can  do  them  no  further  harm.  It  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that  at  the  next  general  election 
the  National  constituencies  of  Ireland  will  send 
to  the  House  of  Commons  no  men  who  are  not 
prepared  to  work  in  complete  union  with  the 
National  party,  and  to  recognize  the  authority 
of  the  leader  who  has  the  confidence  of  his 
people.  I  do  not  care  to  waste  many  words  on 
this  subject,  but  I  think  it  right  to  assure  my 
American  readers  that  they  need  not  attach 
any  serious  importance  to  the  doings  of  five  or 
six  men,  most  of  whom  are  either  mere  "  cranks  " 
or  are  driven  to  desperation  by  disappointed 
personal  ambition. 

John    Redmond   has  the  confidence  of   his 
countrymen  in  England  and  Scotland,  as  well 

252 


JOHN   E.   REDMOND 

as  in  Ireland,  and  we  have  seen  that  within  the 
last  few  months  he  has  obtained  full  assurance 
that  he  enjoys  the  confidence  of  his  country- 
men in  the  United  States,  in  Canada,  and  in 
Australasia.  I  feel  all  the  more  ready  to  bear 
my  testimony  to  his  merits  and  his  success 
because  of  the  fact  that  I  was,  during  a  crisis 
which  lasted  for  some  years,  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  the  policy  which  he  felt  himself  consci- 
entiously bound  to  adopt.  The  change  of  events 
has  released  him  from  any  obligation  to  adhere 
to  such  a  policy,  and  I  do  him  the  justice  to 
believe  that  he  accepted  with  the  sincerest  and 
most  disinterested  good  will  the  first  genuine 
opportunity  offered  for  a  complete  reunion  of 
Irish  Nationalists.  John  Redmond  is  still  young 
enough  to  have  a  career  before  him,  and  I  feel 
the  fullest  confidence  in  his  future. 


253 


SIR  WILLIAM   HARCOURT 


Photograph  copyright  hy  Elliutt  *  Fry 

SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 


SIR  WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

Every  friend  and  admirer  of  Sir  William 
Harcourt  must  have  been  glad  when  it  was 
made  known  that  the  late  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons  had  declined 
to  accept  the  King's  offer  of  a  peerage  and  was 
determined  to  remain  in  that  representative 
chamber  where  he  had  made  his  political  name 
and  won  his  place  of  command.  Sir  William 
Harcourt  would  have  been  thrown  away  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  He  could  not  have  done 
anything  to  arouse  that  apathetic  chamber  to 
living  importance  in  the  affairs  of  state,  and 
the  House  of  Commons  would  have  lost  its 
most  impressive  figure.  Sir  William  Harcourt's 
political  fame  was  made  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  he  is  even  yet  its  most  distinguished 
member.  I  say  "  even  yet "  because  Harcourt 
is  growing  old,  and  has  passed  that  age  of  three- 
score years  and  ten  authoritatively  set  down  as 
the  allotted  space  of  man's  life.  But  he  shows 
no  appearance  of  old  age,  seems  full  of  energy 

257 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

and  vital  power,  and  is  as  well  able  to  command 
the  listening  House  of  Commons  by  argumenta- 
tive speech  and  impressive  declamation  as  he 
was  twenty  years  ago.  Harcourt's  bearing  is 
one  of  superabundant  physical  resources,  and 
he  has  a  voice  of  resonant  tone  which  imposes 
no  tax  on  the  listening  powers  of  the  stranger 
in  the  farthest  gallery.  He  is  a  very  tall  man, 
would  be  one  of  the  tallest  men  in  any  political 
assembly,  and  his  presence  is  stately  and  com- 
manding. After  Gladstone's  death  he  became 
the  leader  of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  he  resigned  that  position  only 
because  he  could  not  cordially  accept  the  policy 
and  plans  of  action  undertaken  by  his  leader 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  Lord  Rosebery.  I  do 
not  propose  to  enter  at  any  length  into  the 
differences  of  opinion  which  separated  these 
two  men,  but  it  was  generally  understood  that 
Lord  Rosebery  did  not  see  his  way  to  carry 
out  Gladstone's  policy  for  the  maintenance  of 
Greece  and  the  Christian  populations  generally 
against  the  blood-stained  domination  of  the 
Ottoman  power  in  the  southeast  of  Europe. 
The  result  of  these  differences  was  that  Lord 
Rosebery  applied  himself  to  form  a  Liberal 
party  of  his  own,  which  should  be  what  is  called 

258 


SIR   WILLIAM   HARCOURT 

Imperialist  in  its  policy,  and  that  Harcourt 
became  merely  a  member  of  the  Liberal  Oppo- 
sition in  the  House  of  Commons.  To  have 
won  the  place  of  Liberal  leader  in  the  repre- 
sentative chamber  might  well  have  satisfied  the 
ambition  of  any  man,  and  to  withdraw  from 
that  place  rather  than  contribute  to  any  further 
disagreement  in  the  party  did  not  in  any  sense 
detract  from  Harcourt's  influence  and  fame. 

Sir  William  Harcourt  won  his  earliest  dis- 
tinctions in  law  and  literature  rather  than  in 
politics.  He  comes  of  a  family  which  has  a 
history  of  its  own  and  had  members  who  won 
reputation  during  many  generations.  He  was 
educated  at  Cambridge  University  and  obtained 
high  honors  there.  He  was  called  to  the  bar 
in  1854,  and  became  Queen's  Counsel  in  1866. 
In  the  meantime  he  had  accomplished  some 
important  literary  work.  He  was  a  writer  for 
the  "  Saturday  Review,"  then  at  the  zenith  of 
its  reputation,  and  under  the  title  of  "  Histori- 
cus  "  he  contributed  a  series  of  letters  on  im- 
portant public  subjects  to  the  "  Times  "  news- 
paper which  attracted  universal  attention,  were 
afterwards  collected  and  published  in  a  volume, 
and  found  readers  in  every  part  of  the  world 
where  men  take  interest  in  the  public  life  of 

259 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

England.  He  was  a  leading  advocate  in  some 
legal  causes  which  excited  the  profound  atten- 
tion of  the  whole  country,  and  was  already 
regarded  as  a  man  of  mark,  who  might  be  safely 
assumed  to  have  a  successful  career  before  him. 
It  was  generally  taken  for  granted  at  the  time 
that  such  a  man  was  certain  to  seek  and  find  a 
place  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which  of 
course  offers  an  opening  for  rising  legal  advo- 
cates as  well  as  for  rising  politicians.  I  can 
remember  quite  distinctly  that  to  all  of  us  who 
were  watching  the  careers  of  promising  men  it 
appeared  quite  certain  that  Harcourt  was  not 
likely  to  content  himself  with  professional  dis- 
tinction, and  that  when  he  entered  the  House 
of  Commons  he  would  devote  himself  for  the 
most  part  to  the  business  of  political  life.  He 
made  one  unsuccessful  attempt  to  obtain  a  seat 
in  the  House  of  Commons  as  representative  of 
a  Scottish  constituency,  and  was  more  fortu- 
nate in  his  second  endeavor,  when  he  was 
elected  to  Parliament  by  the  city  of  Oxford  as 
a  Liberal  in  iS68.  Then  for  a  while  I  person- 
ally lost  sight  of  him,  for  towards  the  close  of 
that  year  I  began  a  lengthened  visit  to  the 
United  States,  and  only  learned  through  the 
newspapers  that  he  was  already  winning  marked 

260 


SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

distinction  as  a  Parliamentary  debater.  When 
I  returned  to  England  in  1871,  I  found  that 
Harcourt  was  already  regarded  as  certain  to 
hold  high  office  in  a  Liberal  administration. 
His  first  step  in  that  direction  was  to  obtain 
the  office  of  Solicitor-General  in  Gladstone's 
Government. 

A  story  was  told  of  Harcourt  at  the  time  — 
this  was  in  1873  —  which  I  believe  to  be  au- 
thentic and  is  worth  repeating.  Up  to  this 
time  he  was  merely  Mr.  William  Vernon  Har- 
court, but  the  usage  in  Parliamentary  life  is 
that  the  leading  law  officers  of  the  Crown,  the 
Attorney-General  and  the  Solicitor-General, 
shall  receive  the  honor  of  knighthood.  It  was 
therefore  a  matter  of  course  that  Mr.  Harcourt 
should  become  Sir  William  Harcourt,  and  bear 
the  title  by  which  he  is  still  known  everywhere. 
The  story  goes,  however,  that  Harcourt  was 
not  much  delighted  with  the  offer  of  a  distinc- 
tion which  is  commonly  conferred  upon  the 
mayors  of  English  cities  and  towns  and  other 
such  personages  of  municipal  position.  Har- 
court, as  I  have  said,  came  of  a  distinguished 
English  family  which  had  contributed  Lord 
Chancellors  and  other  such  exalted  dignitaries 
to  the  business  of  the  State.     He  probably  had 

261 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

also  in  his  mind  the  fact  that  rising  men  in  his 
own  profession  who  happened  to  be  sons  of 
peers  were  specially  exempted  by  constitutional 
usage  from  the  necessity  of  putting  up  with 
knighthood  when  accepting  one  of  the  two 
legal  offices  under  the  Crown.  The  manner 
in  which  this  very  fact  proclaimed  the  com- 
parative insignificance  of  the  title  may  have 
still  further  influenced  Harcourt's  objections. 
Anyhow,  he  did  endeavor  to  impress  upon 
Gladstone  his  claim  to  be  exempted  from  the 
proffered  dignity.  Gladstone,  however,  assured 
him  that  it  was  the  recognized  constitutional 
practice  to  confer  a  knighthood  upon  a  new 
Solicitor-General,  and  that  there  was  no  reason 
why  Harcourt  should  seek  dispensation  from 
the  honor.  "  Then,"  demanded  Harcourt  —  so 
at  least  the  story  is  told  — "  why  don't  you 
confer  knighthoods  on  all  the  members  of  your 
Cabinet,  and  see  how  some  of  them  would 
receive  the  proposition  ?  "  I  cannot  vouch  for 
this  story  as  historical  truth,  but  I  can  vouch 
for  the  fact  that  it  was  told  everywhere  at 
the  time,  and  received,  so  far  as  I  know,  no 
contradiction. 

Harcourt  made  his  way  almost  at  once  to  the 
front   rank   of    Parliamentary   debaters.      His 

262 


SIR  WILLIAM   HARCOURT 

style  was  somewhat  rhetorical  and  declamatory, 
but  it  was  distinctly  argumentative,  and  his 
speeches  contained  few  passages  of  mere  de- 
clamation. He  was  a  hard  hitter,  one  of  the 
hardest  in  the  House,  but  he  hit  straight  from 
the  shoulder  and  never  gave  an  unfair  blow. 
He  was  often  very  happy  in  his  sarcastic  touches, 
and  there  was  a  certain  robust  and  self-satisfied 
good-humor  even  in  his  severest  attacks  on  his 
Parliamentary  opponents.  The  general  im- 
pression of  observers  at  first  was  that  Harcourt 
would  go  in  merely  for  the  reputation  of  a 
powerful  debater  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  would  not  show  any  ambition  for  the  steady 
and  severe  work  of  Ministerial  office.  The  pub- 
lic had  yet  to  learn  that  the  highest  reputation 
of  the  man  was  to  be  made  by  his  success  as 
the  head  of  a  great  Ministerial  department. 
Many  observers  also  formed  the  opinion  that 
Harcourt  had  no  clear  political  views  of  his 
own,  and  was  merely  a  sort  of  free  lance  ready 
to  accept  employment  under  the  most  conven- 
ient leader.  He  had  entered  the  House  of 
Commons  as  a  Liberal,  and  even  before  he 
accepted  office  had  always  ranked  himself  as  a 
regular  supporter  of  the  Liberal  party,  but  he 
often  made  speeches  in  opposition  to  the  views 

263 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS    ' 

of  extreme  Liberals  or  Radicals  —  speeches 
such  as  might  well  have  been  made  by  some 
eloquent  member  of  the  Tory  party.  Many  of 
the  more  advanced  Liberals  had  for  some  time 
no  confidence  whatever  in  Harcourt's  Liberal- 
ism, and  were  often  engaged  in  sharp  contro- 
versy with  him.  My  own  impression  is  that, 
up  to  a  certain  period  in  his  career,  Harcourt 
had  not  formed,  or  troubled  himself  to  form, 
any  very  settled  opinions  on  the  rising  political 
questions  of  the  day.  Upon  all  the  old  sub- 
jects of  political  debate,  on  the  controversies 
which  divided  political  parties  in  a  former  gen- 
eration, his  views  were,  no  doubt,  quite  settled, 
but  then  there  were  many  new  subjects  coming 
up  for  discussion,  bringing  with  them  new 
occasions  for  political  division,  and  it  is  quite 
probable  that  on  some  of  these  at  least  the 
new  Solicitor-General  had  not  quite  made  up 
his  mind.  He  had  been  a  close  student  at 
Cambridge,  and  had  been  elected  professor  of 
international  law  by  that  University ;  he  had 
practiced  law  as  an  advocate,  and  had  begun  to 
make  a  reputation  for  himself  as  a  writer.  It 
is  quite  probable  that  he  had  not  yet  given  any 
special  attention  to  some  of  the  new  questions 
which  the  growing  development  of  social  and 

264 


SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

political  conditions  was  calling  up  for  Parlia- 
mentary consideration. 

Harcourt  appears  to  have  accepted  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  when  he  entered  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  recognized  principles  inherited 
by  the  Liberal  party.  But  there  was  then,  as 
at  most  other  periods  of  England's  constitu- 
tional history,  a  new  and  advancing  Liberal 
party  beginning  to  make  its  influence  felt,  and 
not  satisfied  to  abide  by  the  mere  traditions 
and  established  canons  of  the  older  Liberalism. 
Only  a  very  few  even  of  the  advanced  Liberals 
were  yet  prepared  to  support  and  encourage  the 
Irish  demand  for  Home  Rule,  and  on  such  do- 
mestic questions,  for  instance,  as  the  regulation 
of  the  liquor  trafhc,  the  Liberal  party  in  general 
had  not  made  up  its  mind  to  any  policy  other 
than  a  policy  of  mere  inaction.  I  mention  these 
two  subjects  in  particular  because  they  have  an 
especial  value  in  throwing  light  upon  the  change 
which  took  place  more  lately  in  Harcourt 's  polit- 
ical attitude.  Probably  at  the  time  when  he  first 
entered  the  House  of  Commons  he  had  not 
concerned  himself  much  with  the  Home  Rule 
question,  and  had  allowed  himself  to  take  it  for 
granted,  as  so  many  even  among  Liberal  poli- 
ticians and  newspapers  would  have  told  him, 

265 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

that  the  Irish  Home  Rulers  were  aiming  at  the 
break-up  of  the  Empire.  In  the  same  way  it 
is  quite  possible  that  he  may  have  given  little 
or  no  attention  to  the  demand  for  some  new 
regulation  of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  dismissed 
the  whole  subject  as  a  crotchet  of  Sir  Wilfrid 
Lawson.  When,  however,  he  began  to  study 
the  political  life  of  the  House  of  Commons  as 
an  active  and  a  rising  member,  and  when  he 
found  that  his  inclinations  and  his  instincts 
were  leading  him  into  politics  and  away  from 
law,  we  can  easily  understand  that  he  set  him- 
self to  study  with  candid  judgment  the  new 
questions  which  were  beginning  to  divide  the 
Liberal  party.  I  have  often  heard  Sir  William 
Harcourt  accused  of  inconsistency  and  even  of 
time-serving,  because  of  his  sudden  conversion 
to  the  principle  of  some  political  movement 
which  was  at  last  coming  to  be  accepted  by  the 
great  Liberal  leaders.  I  do  not  see  any  reason 
whatever  to  believe  that  Harcourt  can  fairly  be 
reproached  with  inconsistency,  or  justly  accused 
of  any  ignoble  motive  for  his  adoption  of  the 
newer  and  more  advanced  opinions.  The  ex- 
planation seems  to  me  quite  clear.  The  uni- 
versity student,  the  practicing  advocate,  the 
professor  of  international  law,  adopted  a  new 

266 


SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

career  and  devoted  himself  to  an  active  part  in 
the  work  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Then  it 
was  that  he  studied  for  the  first  time  with  ear- 
nestness and  impartiahty  some  great  develop- 
ing questions  which  had  previously  been  mere 
names  and  shadows  to  him,  and  thus  he  came 
to  form  the  conclusions  which  guided  his  sub- 
sequent career.  If  Harcourt  had  been  think- 
ing chiefly  of  his  own  political  advancement, 
he  might  have  done  better  for  himself  by 
following  the  example  of  Disraeli,  and  taking 
a  place  among  the  Tories,  where  intellect  and 
eloquence  were  more  rare  than  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House,  and  where  promotion  was 
therefore  more  easily  to  be  won. 

Harcourt  had  probably  not  given  much  atten- 
tion to  great  financial  questions  until  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  Gladstone.  Up  to  that 
time  he  had,  perhaps,  not  assumed  that  such 
subjects  were  likely  to  come  within  the  scope 
of  his  practical  work ;  but  when  he  had  to  study 
them,  he  began  to  discover  that  he  had  within 
him  the  capacity  for  a  thorough  comprehen- 
sion of  their  real  meaning  and  development, 
and  as  the  result  of  the  study  he  became,  when 
the  opportunity  offered  itself,  one  of  the  most 
successful  and  enlightened  financial  Ministers 

267 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

of  his  time.  In  the  same  way  he  may  never 
have  given  any  serious  thought  to  the  question 
of  Irish  Home  Rule,  and  may  have  fallen  quietly 
into  the  way  of  regarding  it,  in  accordance  with 
the  common  opinion  of  most  Englishmen  just 
then,  as  something  naturally  associated  with  a 
rebellious  desire  for  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Empire.  When,  however,  he  was  led  to  study 
it  as  a  question  of  reasonable  import,  he  grew 
to  be  a  convinced  and  a  hopeful  advocate  of 
the  cause.  For  a  long  time  after  he  had 
taken  office  under  Gladstone  he  found  himself 
brought  into  an  incessant  opposition  and  even 
antagonism  to  the  small  group  of  Irish  mem- 
bers, who  then  represented  the  Irish  national 
demand,  and  compelled  to  fight  against  the 
obstruction  which  these  Irish  members  were 
raising  night  after  night,  as  their  only  means 
of  enforcing  public  attention  to  a  serious  con- 
sideration of  Ireland's  national  complaints  and 
claims.  He  became  converted  to  the  cause  of 
Home  Rule,  just  as  Gladstone  did,  by  having 
the  question  forced  upon  his  consideration,  and 
thus  being  compelled  to  ask  himself  whether 
there  was  not  some  real  sense  of  justice  inspir- 
ing the  Irish  agitation, 

I  shall   always  remember  a  conversation   I 
268 


SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

once  had  with  Gladstone  on  this  subject  of 
Irish  Home  Rule.  It  was  in  one  of  the  inner 
lobbies  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone  began  it  by  asking  me  how  I  could 
regard  Home  Rule  as  a  national  demand,  see- 
ing that  only  a  very  small  number  of  the  Irish 
representatives  in  the  House  were  actively  in 
favor  of  such  a  measure.  Gladstone  called  my 
attention  to  the  fact  that  out  of  the  whole  body 
of  Irish  representatives  elected  by  the  con- 
stituencies on  the  same  basis  of  voting,  less 
than  a  dozen  members  declared  themselves 
uncompromising  advocates  of  Home  Rule.  I 
drew  Gladstone's  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  suffrage  in  Ireland  was  so  high  and  so 
restricted  that  the  whole  bulk  of  the  Irish 
population  were  disqualified  by  law  from  giving 
a  vote  at  any  election.  Gladstone  appealed  to 
me  to  say  whether  he  had  not  long  been  in  favor 
of  an  expanded  suffrage  for  the  whole  King- 
dom, and  I  told  him  that  I  cordially  recognized 
his  sincere  purpose,  and  that  whenever  we  got 
a  really  fair  and  popular  suffrage  he  would 
then  find  ample  proof  that  the  great  bulk  of 
the  Irish  people  were  united  in  their  demands 
for  Home  Rule.  Not  long  after,  it  came  about 
that  Gladstone  and  his  Government  saw  their 

269 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

way  to  a  measure  of  reform  which  gave  the 
whole  Kingdom  an  expanded  and  popular  suf- 
frage, and  at  the  next  general  election  the  great 
majority  of  Irish  members  opposed  to  or  luke- 
warm about  Home  Rule  disappeared  altogether 
from  Parliament,  and  their  places  were  taken 
by  avowed  and  uncompromising  Home  Rulers 
elected  mainly  because  they  were  earnest  advo- 
cates of  Home  Rule.  Out  of  the  hundred  and 
three  members  who  constitute  the  Irish  repre- 
sentation, we  had  then  nearly  ninety  who  were 
proclaimed  and  consistent  Home  Rulers.  This 
result  did  much  of  itself  to  make  Gladstone  a 
convert  to  Home  Rule,  and  it  had  naturally 
the  same  effect  on  Harcourt,  who  was  far 
too  intelligent  a  man  not  to  accept  the  lesson 
taught  by  the  Irish  constituencies,  and  to  admit 
that  the  demand  for  Home  Rule  was  a  genuine 
national  demand,  and  as  such  entitled  to  the 
serious  consideration  of  real  statesmen.  The 
conversion  of  Harcourt  I  have  always,  there- 
fore, regarded  as  sincere  and  statesmanlike, 
and  of  the  same  order  as  the  conversion  of 
Gladstone  himself.  The  first  business  of  states- 
manship is  to  recognize  established  facts  and 
to  act  upon  their  evidence.  Once  the  demand 
had  been  proved  to  be  national,  neither  Glad- 

270 


SIR   WILLIAM   HARCOURT 

stone  nor  Harcourt  was  the  man  to  deny  it 
a  full  consideration ;  and  the  same  full  consid- 
eration made  the  one  man  and  the  other  an 
advocate  of  Home  Rule. 

In  the  days  before  the  great  constitutional 
change  which  I  have  described,  the  change 
which  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  a  popular  suf- 
frage, in  the  days  when  our  small  band  of  Irish 
Nationalists  was  still  doing  battle  inch  by  inch 
against  the  Government,  we  had  many  fierce 
struggles  with  Harcourt,  then  a  leading  mem- 
ber of  the  Liberal  administration.  We  had  to 
admit  that  we  found  in  him  a  powerful  antag- 
onist. He  was  ready  in  reply,  resolute  in  main- 
taining his  position,  and  he  gave  us,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  as  good  as  we  brought.  He  was 
ever  alert,  he  could  answer  attack  by  attack, 
he  could  carry  the  battle  into  the  enemy's  ranks, 
and  the  ablest  of  our  debaters  had  his  best 
work  to  do  when  compelled  to  stand  up  in 
Parliamentary  contest  against  Harcourt.  But 
I  observed  that  in  our  private  dealings  with 
Harcourt,  on  questions  which  came  within  the 
range  of  his  administrative  functions,  we  always 
found  him  considerate,  kind,  and  even  gener- 
ous. There  were  frequent  occasions  when  a 
Minister  of  the  Crown  had  to  be  applied  to  by 

271 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

an  Irish  member  for  justice  in  the  dealings  of 
his  official  department,  where  individual  ques- 
tions of  right  and  wrong  having  nothing  to  do 
with  the  general  subject  of  Home  Rule  came 
up  for  consideration.  I  am  now  speaking  of 
questions  which  were  not  to  be  settled  by  mere 
debate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  which 
belonged  to  the  ordinary  and  practical  dealings 
of  the  department  with  this  or  that  individual 
case.  I  can  remember  many  instances  in  which 
I  had  to  make  some  such  appeal  to  Sir  William 
Harcourt,  and  I  ever  found  him  most  ready  and 
willing  to  consider  fairly  the  nature  of  any  in- 
dividual grievance,  and  to  prevent  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  law  from  being  perversely  turned 
into  an  engine  of  oppression.  I  know  that 
many  of  my  colleagues  as  well  as  myself  felt 
thankful  to  Harcourt  for  his  prompt  interfer- 
ence where  a  real  grievance  had  been  brought 
under  his  notice,  and  for  his  resolve  to  see  that 
justice  must  be  done  to  the  obscure  sufferer 
from  official  tyranny.  When  the  Liberal  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Irish  National  party  came 
to  work  together  for  Home  Rule,  we,  the  Irish 
National  members,  had  nothing  on  our  memory 
which  could  prevent  us  from  regarding  Har- 
court as  a  genuine  Liberal  and  a  sincere  friend 

272 


SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

who  had  never  shown  any  inclination  to  abuse 
his  power  when  he  was  strong  and  we  were  at 
our  weakest.  My  recollection  of  the  days  when 
we  were  fighting  against  Harcourt  is  tinged 
with  no  bitterness.  He  was  always  a  formidable 
fighter,  but  he  fought  fairly  when  he  still  had 
to  fight  against  us. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Harcourt  should 
have  been  for  some  time  regarded  as  a  power- 
ful debater  and  nothing  more.  He  was  one  of 
the  foremost  debaters  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, even  at  a  time  when  that  House  had 
more  commanding  debaters  in  it  than  it  can 
claim  to  have  just  at  present.  He  cannot  be 
ranked  among  the  great  orators  of  the  House. 
He  is  wanting  in  imagination,  and  without  the 
gift  of  imagination  there  cannot  be  eloquence 
of  the  highest  order.  Even  in  the  mere  mak- 
ing of  phrases  he  has  seldom  shown  originality, 
and  it  has  often  been  remarked  of  him,  as  it  was 
remarked  by  Disraeli  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  that 
he  never  ventures  on  any  quotation  which  has 
not  already  well  established  its  popularity.  Sir 
William  Harcourt's  best  qualities  as  a  speaker 
consist  in  his  clearness  of  exposition,  his  unfail- 
ing fluency,  his  masterly  array  of  forcible  argu- 
ment, and  the  fact  that  he  never  allows  his 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

eloquence  to  soar  over  the  heads  of  his  audi- 
ence. I  should  be  inclined  to  say  of  him  that, 
although  he  is  unquestionably  a  great  Parlia- 
mentary debater,  yet  his  intellectual  capacity, 
his  faculty  for  balancing  evidence,  acquiring 
and  comparing  facts,  appreciating  tendencies, 
and  coming  to  just  conclusions,  are  greater 
even  than  his  powers  of  speech.  I  may  say 
that  one  who  listened  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 
during  the  earlier  stages  of  his  Parliamentary 
career  might  very  naturally  have  been  led  to 
quite  a  different  conclusion,  and  might  have  set 
him  down  as  a  clever  maker  of  speeches  and 
not  a  statesman.  But  such  an  observer,  sup- 
posing him  to  be  endowed  with  a  fair  amount 
of  intelligence,  would  have  gradually  changed 
his  opinion  as  he  followed  Harcourt's  political 
career.  Every  time  that  Harcourt  has  been  in 
office  he  has  more  and  more  given  proof  that 
there  is  in  him  the  true  quality  of  statesman- 
ship. He  served  as  Home  Secretary  under 
Gladstone,  and  was  afterwards  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  first  in  one  of  Gladstone's  Ad- 
ministrations and  afterwards  in  the  Government 
of  Lord  Rosebery.  There  can  be  no  ques- 
tion that  he  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  financial  Ministers  England  has  had 

274 


SIR   WILLIAM   HARCOURT 

in  recent  times.  His  famous  Death  Duties 
budget,  introduced  while  Lord  Rosebery  was 
Prime  Minister,  created  one  of  the  most  vehe- 
ment controversies  known  to  the  political  life 
of  the  present  generation.  Yet  the  great  prin- 
ciple which  Harcourt  embodied  in  his  deahng 
with  the  question  of  death  duties  must  now  be 
regarded  even  by  his  political  opponents  as 
resting  on  a  basis  of  absolute  morality  and 
justice.  The  principle  merely  was  that  the 
amount  of  taxation  which  any  individual  pays 
to  the  State  in  consideration  of  his  having 
obtained  property  by  bequest  shall  be  greater 
in  proportion  according  as  the  acquired  pro- 
perty is  great  in  amount.  In  other  words, 
Harcourt's  policy  maintained  that  a  man  who 
comes  in  for  a  large  property  as  a  bequest  shall 
pay  a  larger  proportion  of  taxation  to  the  State 
than  a  man  who  comes  in  for  a  small  property, 
and  that  the  same  principle  ought  to  prevail 
through  our  other  systems  of  direct  taxation. 
The  whole  controversy  simply  turns  on  the 
question  whether  the  rich  man  ought  or  ought 
not  to  pay  a  larger  proportion  of  his  income  to 
defray  the  national  expenses  than  the  poor  man 
—  whether  the  citizen  who  has  only  income 
enough  to  enable  him  to  maintain  his  family 

275 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

decently  ought  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  towards 
the  maintenance  of  the  State  on  just  the  same 
scale  as  that  ordained  for  the  man  who  can  live 
in  lavish  luxury.  The  boldness  and  originality 
of  Sir  William  Harcourt's  venture  in  his  bud- 
get of  1893,  th^  energy  and  argumentative 
power  with  which  he  carried  it  to  success,  have 
undoubtedly  secured  for  him  a  place  in  the 
front  rank  of  England's  financial  Ministers. 
The  later  years  of  Harcourt's  career  offer  a 
strange  commentary  on  the  estimate  generally 
formed  of  him  when  he  began  to  be  conspicu- 
ous in  Parliament.  At  the  former  period  he 
was  commonly  regarded  as  a  clever  but  some- 
what superficial  man,  as  one  whose  qualities 
were  rather  flashy  than  sound,  as  a  ready  maker 
of  telling  speeches  designed  to  produce  an 
immediate  effect  and  destined  to  be  utterly 
forgotten  the  day  after  to-morrow.  Harcourt's 
later  years  of  public  work  have  proved  him  to 
be  a  serious  Parliamentary  leader,  a  man  of 
strong  and  deep  convictions,  a  man  who  thinks 
before  he  speaks  and  speaks  because  he  thinks. 
Indeed,  the  seriousness  of  Harcourt's  convic- 
tions on  some  subjects  of  national  importance 
has  brought  him  more  than  once  into  disfavor 
with  his  constituents.     He  holds  very  strong 

276 


SIR   WILLIAM    HARCOURT 

and  advanced  views  on  the  subject  of  local 
option  —  that  is  to  say,  on  the  right  of  localities 
to  say  whether  they  will  or  will  not  allow  the 
sale  of  intoxicating  drinks  within  their  con- 
fines, and  to  state  what  conditions  are  to  be 
imposed  on  the  traffic  if  it  is  permitted  at  all. 
Sir  William  Harcourt  went  further  on  this 
subject  than  some  even  among  his  colleagues 
who  were  in  favor  of  the  general  principle  as 
a  principle,  but  did  not  see  the  necessity  for 
pressing  it  to  immediate  action.  One  of  those 
colleagues  said  to  me  that  in  his  opinion  Har- 
court might  very  well  have  allowed  the  question 
to  stand  over  for  eight  or  ten  years,  and  per- 
haps by  the  end  of  that  time  the  habits  of  the 
population  would  have  improved  so  far  as  to 
render  the  passing  of  any  strong  restrictive 
law  unnecessary.  I  am  quite  certain  that  Har- 
court's  earnest  resolve  to  deal  boldly  with  this 
subject  if  he  should  be  allowed  the  opportunity 
had  much  to  do  with  the  condition  of  feeling 
in  the  Liberal  party  which  led  to  his  resigna- 
tion of  its  leadership.  We  may  look  forward 
with  confidence  to  the  formation  of  a  new  Lib- 
eral Government  in  which  Harcourt  will  have 
a  commanding  position,  and  when  that  time 
comes  we  may  take  it  for  granted  that,  in  spite 

277 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

of  whatever  opposition  on  either  side  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  will  once  more  attempt 
to  deal  with  the  question  of  local  option. 

Most  of  my  American  readers  know  that  Sir 
William  Harcourt's  second  wife  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Lothrop  Motley,  the  famous  historian 
who  was  for  a  time  Minister  to  Great  Britain, 
and  who  died  at  Harcourt's  country  residence 
in  1877.  The  eldest  son,  Louis  Vernon  Har- 
court,  who  was  born  in  1863,  has  also  married 
an  American  lady.  Louis  Harcourt,  whom  I 
have  known  since  his  boyish  days,  is  endowed 
with  much  of  his  father's  talents,  and  I  have 
always  thought  that  if  he  had  devoted  himself 
entirely  to  political  life  he  might  make  for  him- 
self such  a  career  as  his  father  has  already  ac- 
complished. During  contested  elections  I  have 
been  more  than  once  associated  with  Louis 
Harcourt  in  "  stumping "  some  parts  of  the 
country  on  behalf  of  the  Liberal  Government 
then  engaged  in  the  cause  of  Home  Rule,  and 
I  have  the  clearest  memories  of  his  remarkable 
organizing  capacity,  his  ready  eloquence,  and 
his  skill  in  replying  to  questions  and  arguments 
and  in  convincing  skeptical  voters.  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  every  one  who  has  known 
Louis,  or,  as  he  is  commonly  called,  "  Lulu  " 

278 


SIR  WILLIAM   HARCOURT 

Harcourt,  must  have  delightful  recollections  of 
his  bright  companionship.  We  have  all  heard 
that  Sir  William  Harcourt  studiously  consulted 
his  son  when  the  offer  of  a  peerage  was  made 
to  him  by  King  Edward,  and  that  "  Lulu  "  was 
resolute  in  supporting  his  father's  desire  to  re- 
fuse the  honor,  even  although  his  acceptance 
of  it  would  have  made  "  Lulu  "  the  heir  to  a 
peerage.  Sir  William  Harcourt,  we  may  well 
hope,  has  yet  good  work  to  do  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  There  is  nothing  about  him  which 
suggests  the  idea  of  advanced  years  or  of  decay- 
ing powers,  whether  mental  or  physical.  The 
curious  attack  of  weakness  which  lately  came 
over  so  many  members  of  the  Liberal  party 
never  touched  his  robust  intellect  and  resolute 
character.  No  man  could  render  more  valu- 
able services  than  he  may  be  expected  to  do 
in  turning  to  account  for  genuine  Liberalism 
the  reaction  already  beginning  to  set  in  against 
the  reign  of  the  Tories  and  the  Jingoes.  I 
cherish  the  belief  that  the  best  of  Sir  William 
Harcourt's  work  is  yet  to  be  done  by  him. 


279 


JAMES   BRYCE 


Plioto,^'rai>h  co|>yr!j;ht  by  Lniidun  Stereoscopic  Co. 

JAMES    BRYCE 


JAMES   BRYCE 

James  Bryce  is  universally  recognized  as  one 
of  the  intellectual  forces  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons.  When  he  rises  to  make  a  speech, 
every  one  listens  with  the  deepest  interest,  feel- 
ing sure  that  some  ideas  and  some  instruction 
are  sure  to  come  which  no  political  party  in  the 
House  can  well  afford  to  lose.  Some  men  in 
the  House  of  Commons  have  been  orators  and 
nothing  else ;  some  have  been  orators  and  in- 
structors as  well ;  some  have  been  Parliamen- 
tary debaters  more  or  less  capable  ;  and  a  good 
many  have  been  bores.  In  every  generation 
there  have  been  a  few  who  are  especially  re- 
garded as  illuminating  forces.  The  House  does 
not  think  of  measuring  their  influence  by  any 
estimate  of  their  greater  or  less  capacity  for 
mere  eloquence  of  expression.  It  values  them 
because  of  the  lessons  which  they  teach.  To 
this  small  order  of  members  James  Bryce  un- 
doubtedly belongs.  Now,  I  do  not  mean  to 
convey  the  idea  that  such  men  as  these  are  not 

283 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

usually  endowed  with  the  gift  of  eloquence,  or 
that  they  cannot  deliver  speeches  which  would 
entitle  them  to  a  high  rank  among  Parliamen- 
tary debaters,  no  matter  what  the  import  of  the 
speeches  might  be.  My  object  is  to  describe 
a  certain  class  of  men  whose  Parliamentary 
speeches  are  valued  by  members  in  general 
without  any  special  regard  for  their  form,  but 
only  with  regard  to  their  substance,  for  the 
thoughts  they  utter  and  not  for  the  manner 
of  the  utterance.  James  Bryce  would  be  con- 
sidered an  effective  and  even  a  commanding 
speaker  in  any  public  assembly,  but  neverthe- 
less, when  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  pub- 
lic think  of  his  speeches,  these  are  thought  of 
mainly  for  the  truths  they  tell  and  the  lessons 
they  convey,  and  not  for  any  quality  of  mere 
eloquence  which  adorns  them.  In  a  certain 
sense  James  Bryce  might  be  described  as  be- 
longing to  that  Parliamentary  order  in  the 
front  of  which  John  Morley  stands  just  now ; 
but  of  course  John  Morley  has  thus  far  had 
more  administrative  experience  than  James 
Bryce,  and  has  taken  a  more  distinct  place  as 
a  Parliamentary  and  popular  leader.  Of  both 
men,  however,  I  should  be  inclined  to  say  that 
their  public  speeches  lose   something   of   the 

284 


JAMES    BRYCE 

praise  fairly  due  to  them  as  mere  displays  of 
eloquence,  because  of  the  importance  we  all 
attach  to  their  intellectual  and  educational  in- 
fluence. 

I  may  say  also  that  James  Bryce  is  not  first 
and  above  all  other  things  a  public  man  and  a 
politician.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  thought 
of  a  Parliamentary  career  until  after  he  had 
won  for  himself  a  high  and  commanding  posi- 
tion as  a  writer  of  history.  Bryce  is  by  birth 
an  Irishman  and  belongs  to  that  northern  pro- 
vince of  Ireland  which  is  peopled  to  a  large 
extent  by  Scottish  immigrants.  We  are  all 
rather  too  apt  to  think  of  this  Ulster  province  as 
essentially  un- Irish,  or  even  anti- Irish  in  tone 
and  feeling,  although  some  of  the  most  extreme 
among  Irish  Nationalists,  men  like  John  Mitch- 
ell for  instance,  were  born  and  brought  up  in 
Ulster,  and  in  more  recent  days  some  conspicu- 
ous Home  Rulers  have  sat  in  the  House  of 
Commons  as  representatives  of  Ulster  constitu- 
encies. James  Bryce  has  always  been  an  Irish 
Nationalist  since  he  came  into  public  life,  and 
has  shown  himself,  whether  in  or  out  of  political 
ofhce,  a  steady  and  consistent  supporter  of  the 
demand  for  Irish  Home  Rule.  Indeed,  I  should 
be  well  inclined  to  believe  that  a  desire  to  ren- 

285 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

der  some  personal  service  in  promoting  the  just 
claims  of  Ireland  for  a  better  system  of  govern- 
ment must  have  had  much  influence  over  Bryce's 
decision  to  accept  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. 

Bryce  began  his  education  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow,  from  which  he  passed  on  to  Ox- 
ford, where  he  won  many  honors  and  has  left 
the  memory  of  a  most  successful  career,  not 
merely  as  student,  but  also  as  professor.  He 
studied  for  a  while  at  Heidelberg,  where  he 
cultivated  to  the  full  his  previously  acquired 
knowledge  of  German ;  and  I  have  heard  in 
later  years  on  good  authority  that  while  Bryce 
was  a  member  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government 
he  became  a  great  favorite  with  Queen  Victoria 
because  of  his  capacity  for  fluent  speech  in  the 
language  which  the  late  Queen  loved  especially 
to  hear.  Before  he  turned  his  attention  to  ac- 
tive political  life  Bryce  studied  for  the  bar, 
became  a  member  of  the  profession,  and  actu- 
ally practiced  in  the  Law  Courts  for  some 
years.  Thus  far,  however,  he  had  hardly  given 
indication  of  the  gifts  which  were  destined  to 
secure  for  him  a  high  and  enduring  place  in 
English  literature.  Thus  far  his  life  may  be 
regarded  as  that  of  a  student  and  a  scholar ;  he 

286 


JAMES    BRYCE 

had  yet  to  give  to  the  world  the  fruits  of  his 
scholarship.  James  Bryce  is  probably  above 
all  things  a  scholar.  He  is,  I  may  venture  to 
say,  the  most  scholarly  man  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  I  doubt  whether  there  is  in  England 
so  widely  read  a  man  in  all  departments  of  liter- 
ature, art,  and  science  as  Bryce,  now  that  Lord 
Acton  has  been  removed  from  us  by  death. 
Long  before  his  entrance  into  Parliamentary 
life  Bryce  had  obtained  the  highest  distinction 
as  a  writer  of  history.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  his  great  historical  work,  "  The  Holy 
Roman  Empire,"  is  destined  to  be  an  English 
classic  and  a  book  for  all  countries  and  all 
times.  The  author  could  hardly  add  to  the 
reputation  he  won  by  this  masterpiece  of  his- 
torical study,  insight,  and  labor,  but  it  is  only 
mere  justice  to  say  that  every  work  of  impor- 
tance which  he  afterwards  gave  to  the  world 
has  maintained  his  position  in  literature.  His 
turn  of  mind  has  been  always  that  which 
distinguishes  the  practical  student  —  the  stu- 
dent of  realities,  not  the  visionary  or  the 
dreamer,  the  man  who,  according  to  Goethe's 
phrase,  is  occupied  more  by  the  physical  than 
by  the  metaphysical.  In  1877  he  published  a 
narrative  of  his  travels  in  Transcaucasia,  with 

287 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

an  account  of  his  ascent  of  Mount  Ararat.  I 
believe  no  other  traveler  has  ever  accomplished 
such  a  practical  study  of  Mount  Ararat  as  that 
which  was  made  by  Mr.  Bryce,  and  during  a 
part  of  his  explorings  he  was  absolutely  alone, 
as  he  could  not  prevail  upon  the  guides  belong- 
ing to  that  region  to  overcome  their  supersti- 
tious dread  of  an  intrusion  on  certain  parts  of 
the  mountain.  He  was  always  fond  of  travel, 
and  was  able  to  bring  some  fresh  ideas  out  of 
places  long  familiar  to  tourists,  and  he  gave  to 
the  world  in  English  periodicals  the  results  of 
his  experiences  as  a  traveler.  His  descriptions 
of  Icelandic  scenery  and  of  some  rarely  visited 
regions  of  Hungary  and  of  Poland  have  a  genu- 
ine literary  as  well  as  a  genuine  geographical 
value. 

His  most  important  work,  after  his  great 
history  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  is  un- 
doubtedly his  book  on  "  The  American  Com- 
monwealth," published  in  1888.  This  work 
has  been  read  as  generally  and  studied  as 
closely  on  the  one  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  on 
the  other.  I  have  heard  it  spoken  of  with  as 
thorough  appreciation  in  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Washington  as  in  London,  Manchester, 
and  Liverpool.     Many  years  have  passed  since 

288 


JAMES    BRYCE 

an  eminent  English  public  man,  not  now 
living,  expressed  to  me  an  earnest  wish  that 
some  European  writer  would  take  up  the 
story  of  the  great  American  Commonwealth 
just  where  De  Tocqueville  left  it  in  his  "  De 
la  Democratic  en  Amerique."  I  joined  cor- 
dially in  his  ideas  and  his  wishes,  and  we  dis- 
cussed the  qualifications  of  certain  Englishmen 
for  the  task  if  any  of  them  could  see  his  way 
to  undertake  it,  but  neither  of  us  seemed  to 
be  quite  satisfied  that  we  had  named  the  right 
man  for  the  work.  At  the  time  it  did  not 
occur  to  either  of  us  that  the  historian  of 
"  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  would  be  likely 
to  turn  his  attention  to  the  story  of  the  Ameri- 
can Commonwealth.  Indeed,  the  two  studies 
seemed  to  me  so  entirely  different  and  uncon- 
genial that  if  the  name  of  James  Bryce  had 
been  suggested  to  me  at  the  time  I  should 
probably  have  put  it  aside  without  much  hesi- 
tation. One  could  hardly  have  looked  for  so 
much  versatility  even  in  Mr.  Bryce  as  to  favor 
the  expectation  that  he  could  accomplish,  with 
something  like  equal  success,  two  historical 
works  dealing  with  such  totally  different  sub- 
jects and  requiring  such  different  methods  of 
analysis  and  contemplation. 

289 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

More  lately  still  Mr.  Bryce  brought  out  his 
"  Impressions  of  South  Africa."  This  book 
was  published  in  1897,  and  the  time  of  its 
publication  was  most  appropriate.  It  appeared 
when  the  prospects  of  a  war  with  the  Transvaal 
Republic  were  opening  gloomily  for  the  lovers 
of  peace  and  fair  dealing  in  England.  If  Mr. 
Bryce's  impressions  of  South  Africa  could 
only  have  been  appreciated,  and  allowed  to 
have  their  just  influence  with  the  leaders  of 
the  Conservative  party  at  that  critical  time, 
England  might  have  been  saved  from  a  long 
and  futile  war,  and  from  much  serious  discredit 
in  the  general  opinion  of  the  civilized  world. 
But  if  Bryce  had  spoken  with  the  tongue  of 
an  angel,  he  could  not  at  such  a  time  have 
prevailed  against  the  rising  passion  of  Jingo- 
ism and  the  overmastering  influence  of  mining 
speculators.  It  is  only  right  to  say  that  the 
book  was  in  no  sense  a  mere  distended  politi- 
cal pamphlet.  It  was  not  meant  as  a  counter- 
blast to  Jingoism,  or  as  a  glorification  of  the 
Boer  Republic.  It  was  a  fair  and  temperate 
statement  of  the  author's  observations  in  South 
Africa,  and  of  the  general  conclusions  to  which 
his  experience  and  his  study  had  brought  him. 
Bryce  pointed  out  with  perfect  frankness  the 

290 


JAMES    BRYCE 

defects  and  dangers  he  saw  in  the  Boer  system 
of  government,  and  even  the  most  ferocious 
Jingo  could  hardly  have  felt  justified  in  de- 
scribing the  author  by  that  most  terrible  epi- 
thet, a  "  pro-Boer."  The  warning  which  Bryce 
gave,  and  gave  in  vain,  to  the  English  Gov- 
ernment and  the  English  majority,  was  a 
warning  against  the  credulous  acceptation  of 
one-sided  testimony,  against  the  fond  belief 
that  the  proclamation  of  Imperialism  carried 
with  it  the  right  to  intervene  in  the  affairs  of 
every  foreign  State,  and  against  the  theory 
that  troops  and  gold  mines  warrant  any  enter- 
prise. 

The  Parliamentary  career  of  James  Bryce 
began  in  1880,  when  he  was  elected  as  Lib- 
eral representative  for  a  London  constituency. 
He  did  great  work  in  the  cause  of  national 
education,  and  took  an  important  part  in  two 
State  Commissions  appointed  to  conduct  in- 
quiries into  the  working  of  the  public  schools. 
At  a  later  period  he  was  chosen  to  represent 
a  Scottish  constituency,  and  when  Mr.  Glad- 
stone came  into  power  as  the  head  of  a  Gov- 
ernment Bryce  received  the  important  ofKice 
of  Under-Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs.  At 
that  time  his  chief,  the  Secretary  for  Foreign 

291 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

Affairs,  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  therefore  the  whole  work  of  representing 
the  department   in   the   House   of   Commons, 
where  alone  any  important  debates  on  foreign 
questions   are   conducted,   fell   on   Mr.  Bryce, 
who  had  the  entire  conduct  of   such  discus- 
sions on  behalf   of   the   administration.     The 
department  was  one  which  gave  an  effective 
opportunity   for    the   display   of    Bryce's    inti- 
mate knowledge  of  foreign  countries,  and  he 
acquitted   himself  with  all  the  success  which 
might   have   been    expected   from  one  of   his 
intellect,  his  experience,  and  his  enlightened 
views.     Later  still    he  became   Chancellor   of 
the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  and  for  the  first  time 
had  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet.     The  Chancellor- 
ship of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  is  one  of  a 
small   order  of  English    administrative  offices 
which  have  comparatively  unimportant  duties 
attached  to  their  special   administration,  and 
leave  the   man   in   possession    ample   time  to 
lend  his  assistance,  both  in  the  Cabinet  and 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  all  the  great 
public  questions  which  occupy  the  attention  of 
the  Government.    In  1894  he  became  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant positions  in  any  administration.     Bryce's 

292 


JAMES    BRYCE 

official  career  came  to  a  close  for  the  present 
when  the  Liberal  party  lost  their  majority  in 
the  representative  chamber,  and  the  Conserva- 
tives got  into  power  and  secured  the  adminis- 
trative position  they  are  holding  at  the  present 
day.  Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that 
the  first  really  Liberal  administration  which 
is  again  formed  will  assign  to  Mr.  Bryce  one 
of  the  highest  places  in  its  Cabinet  and  in 
its  work.  Since  he  has  come  to  sit  on  the 
benches  of  Opposition  he  has  taken  part  in 
many  great  debates,  and  is  always  listened  to 
with  the  most  profound  attention.  He  is  one 
of  the  few  leaders  of  the  Liberal  party  who 
were  manful  and  outspoken  in  their  opposition 
to  the  policy  which  originated  and  carried  on 
the  late  South  African  war.  He  has  taken  a 
conspicuous  part  in  every  debate  upon  sub- 
jects of  foreign  policy,  of  national  education, 
and  of  political  advancement.  He  has  never 
acted  as  a  mere  partisan,  and  his  intervention 
in  debate  is  all  the  more  influential  as  it  is 
well  understood  that  he  advocates  a  policy 
because  he  believes  it  to  be  right  and  not  be- 
cause of  any  effect  it  may  have  in  bringing 
himself  and  his  Liberal  colleagues  back  again 
into  power. 

293 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

I  have  often  noticed  the  effect  produced  in 
the  libraries  and  committee-rooms,  in  the  rooms 
assigned  to  those  who  dine  and  to  those  who 
smoke,  when  the  news  is  passed  round  that  Mr. 
Bryce  is  on  his  feet.  A  member  who  is  read- 
ing up  some  subject  in  the  hbrary,  or  writing 
his  letters  in  one  of  the  lobbies,  or  enjoying 
himself  in  a  dining-hall  or  a  smoking-room,  is 
not  likely  to  hurry  away  from  his  occupation  or 
his  enjoyment  in  order  to  rush  into  the  debating 
chamber  merely  because  he  is  told  that  some 
leading  member  of  the  Government  or  the  Op- 
position has  just  begun  to  address  the  House. 
The  man  who  is  addressing  an  audience  in  the 
debating  chamber  may  hold  an  important  office 
in  the  Government  or  may  have  an  important 
place  on  the  Front  Bench  of  Opposition,  but  then 
he  may  be  a  personage  who  feels  bound  to  take 
part  in  a  debate  merely  because  of  the  position 
he  holds,  and  every  one  knows  in  advance  what 
views  he  is  certain  to  advocate  and  what  line 
of  argument  he  is  likely  to  adopt,  and  our  read- 
ing or  dining  or  smoking  friend  may  not  think 
that  there  is  any  pressing  necessity  for  his  pre- 
sence as  a  listener  in  the  House.  But  there  are 
some  leading  men  on  both  sides  of  Mr.  Speaker 
who  are  always  sure  to  have  something  to  say 

294 


JAMES    BRYCE 

which  everybody  wants  to  hear,  and  Mr.  Bryce 
is  unquestionably  one  of  that  happily  endowed 
order.  When  the  word  goes  round  that  Bryce  is 
up,  everybody  knows  that  something  will  be  said 
on  which  he  cannot  exactly  calculate  before- 
hand, something  to  which  it  is  important  that 
he  should  listen,  and  there  is  forthwith  a  rush 
of  members  into  the  debating  chamber.  There 
can  hardly  be  a  higher  tribute  to  a  man's  im- 
portance as  a  debater  than  the  fact  that  his 
rising  to  address  the  House  creates  such  an 
effect,  and  I  have  seen  it  created  again  and 
again  whenever  the  news  went  round  that 
"  Bryce  is  on  his  legs."  I  have  many  a  time 
heard  Conservative  members  murmur,  in  tones 
not  altogether  expressing  absolute  satisfaction 
at  the  disturbing  information,  "Bryce  is  up  — 
I  must  go  in  and  hear  what  he  has  to  say." 
The  tribute  is  all  the  higher  in  this  case  be- 
cause Bryce  is  not  one  of  the  showy  and  fas- 
cinating debaters  whom  everybody  wants  to 
listen  to  for  the  mere  eloquence  and  fascination 
of  their  oratorical  displays.  Everybody  knows 
that  when  he  speaks  it  is  because  he  has  some- 
thing to  say  which  ought  to  be  spoken  and 
therefore  ought  to  be  heard.  It  is  known  that 
Bryce  will  not  make  a  speech  merely  because 

29s 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

he  thinks  the  time  has  come  when  some  leader 
of  Opposition  ought  to  take  part  in  the  debate, 
if  only  to  show  that  the  Opposition  is  attend- 
ing to  its  business. 

This  command  over  the  House  Bryce  has 
always  held  since  he  became  one  of  its  mem- 
bers, and  no  man  can  hold  a  more  desirable 
and  a  more  honorable  position.  It  is  all  the 
more  to  his  credit  because  he  does  not  aim  at 
mere  originality  and  never  makes  it  a  part  of 
his  ambition  to  say  something  astonishing  and 
thus  to  excite  and  delight  the  mere  curiosity  of 
his  audience.  There  have  been  and  still  are 
many  members  of  the  House  who  have  made  a 
reputation  of  this  kind  and  are  therefore  always 
sure  to  command  a  full  attendance  merely  be- 
cause everybody  expects  that  when  they  rise  to 
their  feet  they  are  sure  to  make  the  House  "  sit 
up,"  if  I  may  use  this  somewhat  colloquial,  not 
to  say  vulgar,  phrase.  Take  such  a  man,  for 
instance,  as  the  late  John  Arthur  Roebuck,  a 
man  of  great  intellect,  master  of  a  peculiar 
style  of  eloquence,  who  made  himself  only  too 
often  a  splendid  specimen  of  what  might  be 
called  in  American  phraseology  "  a  crank."  All 
that  could  be  said  with  certainty  beforehand  of 
Roebuck  was  that  whenever  he  rose  to  speak 

296 


JAMES    BRYCE 

he  would  say  something  calculated  to  startle  or 
to  puzzle  the  House.  There  are  men  of  the 
same  order,  if  not  perhaps  of  quite  the  same 
debating  qualifications,  in  the  House  at  pre- 
sent —  men  who  always  draw  a  rush  of  mem- 
bers when  they  rise  to  speak  because  nobody 
can  tell  in  advance  what  side  they  are  likely  to 
advocate  or  what  sort  of  bewildering  paradox 
they  may  set  up  and  make  interesting  if  not 
convincing  by  the  force  of  their  peculiar  style 
of  eloquence.  Bryce  is  emphatically  not  a  man 
of  this  order.  He  is  no  lover  of  paradox ;  he 
has  no  desire  to  create  a  sensation ;  he  merely 
wants  to  impress  the  House  with  what  he  be- 
lieves to  be  the  truth,  and  his  great  quality  is  that 
of  a  beacon  and  not  of  a  flashlight.  His  argu- 
ments appeal  to  the  intellect  and  the  reasoning 
power;  he  speaks  of  what  he  knows;  he  has 
large  resources  of  thought,  experience,  and  ob- 
servation to  draw  upon,  and  the  listeners  feel 
convinced  beforehand  that  he  will  tell  them 
something  they  did  not  know  already,  or  will 
put  his  case  in  some  new  and  striking  light. 

The  House  of  Commons  well  knows  that  it 
would  lose  one  of  its  most  valuable  instructors 
if  Bryce  were  no  longer  to  occupy  a  place  on 
its   benches   or  were   to  condemn  himself   to 

297 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

habitual  inactivity  and  silence.  When  the  Con- 
servative Government  under  Lord  Salisbury 
came  into  power,  and  more  especially  after  the 
late  general  election  which  brought  them  back 
with  added  strength,  many  of  the  Liberal  lead- 
ers seemed  to  have  grown  weary  of  the  political 
struggle.  Something  worse  than  mere  apathy 
appeared  to  have  set  in,  something  more  than 
mere  despondency  and  disheartenment.  Men 
on  whom  the  Liberals  of  England  had  long 
been  wont  to  rely  suddenly  showed  an  apparent 
loss  of  faith  in  all  the  proclaimed  principles  of 
the  party,  and  either  relapsed  into  utter  silence 
or  spoke  in  language  which  suggested  an  in- 
clination to  cross  over  to  the  enemy's  camp. 
The  two  principal  impulses  to  this  mood  of 
mind  were  the  South  African  war  and  the  Irish 
Home  Rule  question.  The  majority  in  the 
constituencies  had  become  inflamed  with  the 
spirit  of  Jingoism,  and  could  think  of  nothing 
but  the  war  and  the  Imperial  glory  of  annexing 
new  territory.  Feeble-hearted  and  weak-kneed 
Liberals  began  to  think  that  the  party  could 
never  hope  for  a  return  to  power  unless  it  too 
could  blow  the  Imperial  trumpet.  Other  Lib- 
erals made  it  manifest  that  they  were  becoming 
alarmed  by  the  unpopularity  of  the  Home  Rule 

298 


JAMES    BRYCE 

question,  and  were  repenting  the  enthusiasm 
which  had  carried  them  too  far  along  the  path 
marked  out  by  the  genius  and  the  patriotic 
resolve  of  Gladstone.  A  species  of  dry-rot  ap- 
peared to  have  broken  out  in  Liberalism.  Be- 
fore long  a  new  section  of  Liberalism  was 
formed,  the  principle  of  which  appeared  to  be 
that  its  members  should  call  themselves  Impe- 
rial Liberals,  and  at  the  same  time  should  sup- 
port the  Tories  on  the  only  important  questions 
then  under  discussion  —  the  policy  of  the  South 
African  campaign  and  the  Irish  National  claim 
for  Home  Rule.  Some  of  the  men  who  had 
held  high  office  when  Gladstone  was  in  power, 
who  had  made  themselves  conspicuous  by  the 
ardor  and  the  eloquence  with  which  they  sup- 
ported his  policy  of  peace  abroad  and  justice  to 
Ireland,  now  openly  avowed  their  renunciation 
of  his  great  principles.  There  were  others 
among  the  foremost  Liberals  in  the  House  of 
Commons  who,  if  they  did  not  thus  openly  take 
the  renegade  part,  kept  themselves  quietly  out 
of  the  active  political  field  and  allowed  the 
movement  of  reaction  to  go  on  without  a  word 
of  protest.  Three  at  least  among  the  Liberal 
leaders  took  a  very  different  course.  Three  of 
them,  at  least,  not  merely  nailed  their  colors  to 

299 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

the  mast,  but  stood  resolutely  in  fighting  atti- 
tude beneath  the  colors  and  proved  themselves 
determined  to  maintain  the  struggle.  These 
three  men  were  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Banner- 
man,  John  Morley,  and  James  Bryce.  There 
were  others,  too,  it  must  be  said,  who  stood  up 
manfully  with  these  three  in  defense  of  that 
losing  cause  of  Liberalism  which  they  could 
never  be  brought  to  regard  as  a  lost  cause. 
But  the  dauntless  three  whom  I  have  just  men- 
tioned were  the  most  prominent  and  the  most 
influential  who  went  forth  against  that  great 
array  of  Toryism  and  Jingoism.  Bryce  was  in 
his  place  as  regularly  as  ever  during  the  whole 
of  that  depressing  time,  and  he  never  failed  to 
raise  his  voice  when  the  occasion  demanded  his 
intervention  on  behalf  of  the  true  principles 
and  practices  of  Liberalism.  During  that  long, 
dreary,  and  disheartening  season  when  despond- 
ent men  were  often  disposed  to  ask  whether 
there  was  any  longer  a  Liberal  party,  Bryce 
made  some  of  the  ablest  speeches  he  has  ever 
delivered  in  arraignment  of  the  Jingo  policy, 
of  the  War  Office  maladministration,  and  the 
rule  of  renewed  coercion  in  Ireland.  The  Lib- 
eral cause  in  England  owes  a  debt  that  never 
can  be  forgotten  to  the  three  men  whom  I  have 

300 


JAMES    BRYCE 

named,  for  their  unflinching  resolve  and  activ- 
ity in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  of  the  three 
none  did  better  service  than  that  which  was 
rendered  by  James  Bryce. 

Bryce  has,  in  face  and  form,' the  characteristics 
of  a  stalwart  fighter.  His  forehead  is  high  and 
broad,  with  strongly  marked  eyebrows,  straightly 
drawn  over  deep  and  penetrating  eyes.  The 
features  are  all  finely  modeled,  the  nose  is 
straight  and  statuesque,  the  hair  is  becoming 
somewhat  thinner  and  more  gray  than  it  was 
when  I  first  knew  Mr.  Bryce,  but  the  mustache 
and  beard,  although  they  too  show  some  fading 
in  color,  are  still  thick  and  strong  as  in  that 
past  day.  The  face  does  not  look  Irish ;  its 
expression  is  perhaps  somewhat  too  sedate  and 
resolute;  but  on  the  other  hand,  it  does  not 
seem  quite  Scotch,  for  there  is  at  moments  a 
suggestion  of  dreaminess  about  it  which  we  do 
not  usually  associate  with  the  shrewd  North 
Briton.  Bryce  is  a  man  of  the  most  genial 
temperament,  thoroughly  companionable,  and 
capable  of  enjoying  every  influence  that  helps 
to  brighten  existence.  Always  a  student  of 
books  and  of  men,  he  is  never  a  recluse,  and  I 
do  not  know  of  any  one  who  seems  to  get  more 
out  of  life  than  does  this  philosophic  historian. 

301 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

Bryce's  London  home  is  noted  for  its  hospital- 
ity, and  his  dinner  parties  and  evening  parties 
give  much  dehght  to  his  large  circle  of  friends. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bryce  are  not  lion-hunters,  and 
do  not  rate  their  friends  according  to  the  degree 
of  celebrity  each  may  have  obtained.  But  they 
have  no  need  to  engage  in  a  hunt  after  lions, 
for  the  celebrities  seek  them  out  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  I  know  of  no  London  house  where 
one  is  more  certain  to  meet  distinguished  men 
and  women  from  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world. 
Bryce's  travels  have  made  him  acquainted  with 
interesting  and  eminent  persons  everywhere, 
and  an  admission  to  his  circle  is  naturally  sought 
by  strangers  who  visit  London.  Representa- 
tives of  literature,  science,  and  art,  of  scholarly 
research,  of  political  movement,  and  of  traveled 
experience  are  sure  to  be  met  with  in  the  home 
of  the  Bryces.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet 
there,  for  the  first  time,  many  distinguished 
men  and  women  whose  acquaintance  it  was  a 
high  and  memorable  privilege  to  make.  Among 
Bryce's  especial  recreations  is  mountain-climb- 
ing, and  he  was  at  one  time  President  of  the 
Alpine  Club.  He  can  converse  upon  all  sub- 
jects, can  give  to  every  topic  some  illustration 
from  his  own  ideas  and  his  own  experiences, 

302 


JAMES    BRYCE 

and  the  intelligent  listener  always  finds  that  he 
carries  away  something  new  and  worthy  of  re- 
membrance from  any  talk  with  him.  Although 
his  strong  opinions  and  his  earnest  desire  to 
maintain  what  he  believes  to  be  the  right  side  of 
every  great  controversy  have  naturally  brought 
him  into  frequent  antagonism  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  many  an  important  case,  I  do  not 
know  of  any  public  man  who  has  made  fewer 
enemies  or  who  is  more  generally  spoken  of 
with  respect  and  admiration.  A  man  must 
have  very  high  conceit  indeed  of  his  own  know- 
ledge and  his  own  judgment  who  does  not  feel 
that  he  has  a  great  deal  to  learn  from  conversa- 
tion with  a  master  of  so  many  subjects.  Yet 
Bryce  never  oppresses  a  listener,  as  some  intel- 
lectual leaders  are  apt  to  do,  with  a  sense  of 
the  listener's  inferiority,  and  the  least  gifted 
among  us  is  encouraged  to  express  himself 
with  frankness  and  freedom  while  discoursing 
with  Bryce  on  any  question  which  happens  to 
come  up.  I  think  that  among  his  many  remark- 
able qualities  is  that  sincere  belief  which  was 
characteristic  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  for  which 
Gladstone  did  not  always  get  due  credit  —  the 
belief  that  every  man,  however  moderate  his 
intellectual  qualifications,  has  something  to  tell 

303 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

which  the  wisest  would  be  the  better  for  know- 
ing. We  must  all  of  us  have  met  scholars  and 
thinkers  and  political  leaders  whose  inborn 
sense  of  their  own  capacity  had  an  overbearing 
and  even  oppressive  effect  on  the  ordinary- 
mortal,  and  made  him  shy  of  expressing  him- 
self fully  lest  he  should  only  be  displaying  his 
ineptitude  or  his  ignorance  in  such  a  presence. 
But  there  is  nothing  of  this  to  be  observed  in 
the  genial  ways  of  James  Bryce,  and  the  listener 
finds  himself  unconsciously  brought  for  the 
time  to  the  level  of  the  master  and  emboldened 
to  give  free  utterance  to  his  own  ideas  and 
opinions. 

Bryce  has  been  made  a  member  of  most  of 
the  great  intellectual  and  educational  institu- 
tions of  the  world,  has  held  degrees  and  honors 
of  various  kinds  from  the  universities  of  Europe 
and  the  United  States,  and  could  hardly  travel 
anywhere  abroad  or  at  home  without  finding 
himself  in  recognized  association  with  some 
school  of  learning  in  every  place  where  he 
makes  a  stay.  The  freemasonry  of  intellect 
and  education  all  over  the  world  gives  him 
rank  among  its  members,  and  receives  him 
with  a  welcome  recognition  wherever  he  goes. 
I  presume  that  in  the  political  sphere  of  action 

304 


JAMES    BRYCE 

he  is  henceforward  likely  to  find  his  congenial 
career,  but  he  must  always  have  the  knowledge 
that,  if  for  any  reason  he  should  give  up  his 
political  occupation,  he  can  at  any  moment 
return  to  some  pursuit  in  which  he  has  already 
won  an  established  fame.  There  are  not  many 
political  leaders  of  our  time  about  whom  the 
same  could  fairly  be  said.  For  myself  I  may 
frankly  say  that  I  hope  James  Bryce  will  hence- 
forward devote  himself  especially  to  that  politi- 
cal career  in  which  he  has  accomplished  such 
great  things.  English  public  life  cannot  well 
afford  to  lose  his  services  just  now  or  for  some 
time  to  come.  A  man  who  can  bring  to  politi- 
cal work  such  resources  of  thought  and  of 
experience,  who  can  look  beneath  the  surface 
and  above  the  mere  phrases  and  catchwords  of 
political  parties,  who  can  see  that  Liberalism 
in  its  true  sense  must  mean  progress,  and  who 
can  at  the  same  time  see  clearly  for  himself 
what  progress  really  means,  and  in  what  direc- 
tion and  by  what  methods  it  is  to  be  made  — 
such  a  man  could  ill  be  spared  by  the  Liberal- 
ism of  our  generation.  The  historical  work  he 
has  already  done  is,  in  its  way,  complete  and 
imperishable.  But  the  Liberal  party  has  yet 
to  recover  its  place  and  to  regain  the  leadership 

305 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

of  England's  political  life.  Every  effort  the 
Conservatives  in  office  have  lately  been  making 
to  hold  their  full  mastery  over  the  country  has 
shown  more  and  more  clearly  that  they  have 
not  kept  up  with  the  movements  of  thought 
and  are  not  able  to  understand  the  true  require- 
ments of  the  time.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
limp  and  shattered  condition  of  the  existing 
Liberal  party  only  shows  the  absolute  neces- 
sity for  the  recognized  leadership  of  men  who 
understand  the  difference  between  the  work  of 
guiding  the  country  and  the  ignoble  function 
of  competing  for  power  by  imitation  and  by 
compromise.  In  the  new  effort  now  so  sorely 
needed  to  create  once  more  a  true  Liberal 
party,  the  country  requires,  above  all  things 
else,  the  constant  service  of  such  men  as  James 
Bryce. 


306 


SIR   HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNER- 
MAN 


Photograph  copyriijlit  by  Loiiduu  ottieutcopic  Co. 

SIR    HK.NRY  CAMPBELL-BANNEKMAN 


SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNER- 
MAN 

Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  has  but 
lately  come  to  hold  that  position  in  the  House 
of  Commons  and  in  the  political  world  which 
those  who  knew  him  well  always  believed  him 
destined  to  attain.  He  is  now  not  merely  the 
nominal  leader  of  the  Liberal  Opposition  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  but  he  is  universally 
regarded  as  one  of  the  very  small  number  of 
men  who  could  possibly  be  chosen  for  the 
place.  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Mr.  John 
Morley  are  the  only  Liberal  members  of  the 
House  who  could  compare  with  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman  for  influence  with  the 
Liberal  party,  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the 
general  public.  Yet  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  he  was  commonly  regarded  in  the  House 
as  a  somewhat  heavy,  not  to  say  stolid,  man, 
one  of  whom  nothing  better  could  be  said  than 
that  he  would  probably  be  capable  of  quiet, 
steady  work  in  some  subordinate  department. 

309 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

I  remember  well  that  when  Campbell-Banner- 
man  was  appointed  Chief  Secretary  to  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland  in  1884,  a  witty  Irish 
member  explained  the  appointment  by  the  sug- 
gestion that  Gladstone  had  made  use  of  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman  on  the  principle  illustrated  by 
the  employment  of  a  sand-bag  as  part  of  the 
defenses  of  a  military  fort.  Campbell-Banner- 
man  has,  in  fact,  none  of  the  temperament  which 
makes  a  man  anxious  to  display  himself  in 
debate,  and  whenever,  during  his  earlier  years 
of  Parliamentary  life,  he  delivered  a  speech  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  his  desire  seemed  to 
be  to  get  through  the  task  as  quickly  as  possible 
and  be  done  with  it.  He  appears  to  be  a  man 
of  a  naturally  reserved  habit,  with  indeed  some- 
thing of  shyness  about  him,  and  a  decided 
capacity  for  silence  wherever  there  is  no  press- 
ing occasion  for  speech,  whether  in  public  or  in 
private. 

Many  whom  I  knew  were  at  one  time  inclined 
to  regard  Campbell-Bannerman  as  a  typical 
specimen  of  his  Scottish  compatriots,  who  are 
facetiously  said  to  joke  with  difficulty.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Campbell-Bannerman  has  a  keen 
and  delightful  sense  of  humor,  and  can  illus- 
trate the  weakness  of  an  opponent's  case,  better 

310 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

than  some  recognized  wits  could  do,  by  a  few 
happy  touches  of  sarcasm.  He  is  in  every  sense 
of  the  word  a  strong  man,  and,  Hke  some  other 
strong  men,  only  seems  to  know  his  own 
strength  and  to  be  capable  of  putting  it  into 
action  when  hard  fortune  has  brought  him  into 
political  difficulties  through  which  it  appears 
well-nigh  impossible  that  he  can  make  his  way. 
Schiller's  hero  declares  that  it  must  be  niorht 
before  his  star  can  shine,  and  although  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman  is  not  quite  so  poetic  and  pic- 
turesque a  figure  as  Wallenstein,  yet  I  think 
he  might  fairly  comfort  himself  by  some  such 
encouraging  reflection.  He  had  gone  through 
a  long  and  hard-working  career  in  the  House 
of  Commons  before  the  world  came  to  know 
anything  of  his  strength,  his  judgment,  and  his 
courage.  He  got  his  education  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow  and  afterwards  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  and  he  obtained  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Commons  for  a  Scottish  constitu- 
ency as  a  Liberal  when  he  was  still  but  a  young 
man.  He  has  held  various  offices  in  Liberal 
administrations.  He  was  Secretary  to  the  Ad- 
miralty in  1882,  and  was  Chief  Secretary  to  the 
Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland  for  a  short  time  a 
little  later.    There  is  not  much  to  be  said  about 

311 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

his  Irish  administration.  He  governed  the 
country  about  as  well  as  any  English  Minister 
could  have  done  under  such  conditions,  for  this 
was  before  Gladstone  and  the  Liberal  party  had 
been  converted  to  the  principle  of  Home  Rule 
for  Ireland ;  and,  at  all  events,  he  made  himself 
agreeable  to  those  Irishmen  with  whom  he 
came  into  contact  by  his  unaffected  manners 
and  his  quiet  good  humor.  When  Gladstone 
took  office  in  1886,  Campbell-Bannerman  be- 
came Secretary  for  War,  and  he  held  the  same 
important  position  in  Gladstone's  Ministry  of 
1892. 

The  story  of  that  administration  tells  of  a 
most  important  epoch  in  the  career  of  Glad- 
stone and  the  fortunes  of  the  Liberal  party. 
In  1893  Gladstone  brought  in  his  second  Home 
Rule  measure  for  Ireland.  His  first  measure 
of  Home  Rule  was  introduced  in  1886,  and 
was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Commons  by 
means  of  a  coalition  between  the  Liberal  seces- 
sionists and  the  Conservative  Opposition.  The 
Liberal  secessionists  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, as  most  of  my  readers  will  remember, 
were  led  by  Joseph  Chamberlain.  Then  there 
came  an  interval  of  Conservative  government, 
and  when  Gladstone  returned  to  power  in  1892 

312 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

he  introduced  before  long  his  second  measure 
of  Home  Rule.  The  second  measure  was  in 
many  ways  a  distinct  improvement  on  the  first, 
and  in  the  meantime  some  of  the  Liberal  seces- 
sionists, including  Sir  George  Trevelyan,  whose 
opposition  was  directed  only  against  certain 
parts  of  the  first  measure,  had  returned  to  their 
allegiance  and  were  ready  to  give  Gladstone  all 
the  support  in  their  power  for  his  second  at- 
tempt. The  Home  Rule  measure  was  carried 
through  the  House  of  Commons  by  what  we 
call  a  substantial  although  not  a  great  majority, 
and  then  it  had  to  go  to  the  House  of  Lords. 
Everybody  knew  in  advance  what  its  fate  must 
be  in  the  hereditary  chamber.  Every  great 
measure  of  genuine  political  reform  is  certain 
to  be  rejected  in  the  first  instance  by  the  House 
of  Lords.  This  is  the  old  story,  and  is  repeated 
again  and  again  with  monotonous  iteration. 
The  House  of  Lords  always  gives  way  in  the 
end,  when  the  pressure  of  public  opinion  from 
without  makes  it  perilous  for  the  hereditary 
legislators  to  maintain  their  opposition.  There- 
fore the  Liberals  in  general  were  not  much 
disconcerted  by  the  defeat  of  the  Home  Rule 
measure  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Home  Rule 
for  Ireland  had  been  sanctioned  by  the  decisive 

313 


BRITISH   POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

vote  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  general 
impression  was  that  it  would  only  have  to  be 
brought  in  again  and  perhaps  again,  according 
to  the  usual  process  with  all  reform  measures, 
until  the  opposition  of  the  Lords  had  been 
completely  borne  down.  But  before  the  intro- 
duction of  the  second  Home  Rule  measure, 
some  events  had  taken  place  which  made  a 
great  change  in  the  condition  of  Irish  political 
affairs  and  put  fresh  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
Gladstone's  new  administration. 

The  Parnell  divorce  case  came  on,  and  led 
to  a  serious  division  in  the  ranks  of  the  Irish 
National  party  and  in  Irish  public  opinion. 
The  great  majority  of  Parnell's  followers  refused 
to  regard  him  as  their  leader  any  longer,  and 
those  who  determined  to  support  him  and  to 
follow  him  through  thick  and  thin  were  but  a 
very  small  minority.  Gladstone  was  firmly 
convinced,  as  were  the  majority  of  the  Irish 
Nationalist  members,  that  Parnell  ought  to 
retire,  for  a  time  at  least,  from  the  leadership  of 
his  party,  if  not  indeed  from  public  life,  and 
keep  aloof  from  active  politics  until  the  scandal 
of  the  divorce  court  should  have  been  atoned 
for  by  him  and  should  have  passed  to  some 
extent  from  public   memory.     Gladstone   was 

314 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

convinced  that  if  Parnell  remained  the  leader 
of  the  Irish  party  it  would  be  almost  impossible 
to  arouse  in  the  British  constituencies  any  en- 
thusiasm in  the  cause  of  Home  Rule  strong 
enough  to  bring  back  the  Liberals  to  power 
and  to  carry  a  Home  Rule  measure.  This  was 
a  reasonable  and  practical  view  of  the  question, 
but  Parnell  and  his  followers  resented  it  as  a 
positive  insult,  and  Parnell  issued  a  manifesto 
denouncing  Gladstone,  the  immediate  result  of 
which  was  that  break-up  of  the  Home  Rule 
party  I  have  already  mentioned.  Not  very 
long  after  came  Parnell's  early  death.  It  may 
well  be  supposed  that  such  events  as  these 
must  have  made  a  deep  and  discouraging  im- 
pression on  Gladstone's  hopes  for  the  success 
of  the  second  Home  Rule  measure.  The  Irish 
National  party  had  been  broken  up  for  the  time, 
and  some  even  of  Gladstone's  colleagues  in 
office  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  mastered 
by  the  old  familiar  idea  that  as  Irishmen  could 
not  be  brought  to  agree  for  long  on  any  plan 
of  action,  it  was  futile  for  English  Liberals  to 
put  themselves  to  any  inconvenience  for  the 
sake  of  an  Irish  National  cause.  Such  men 
might  have  found  it  difficult  to  point  out  any 
great  measure  of  political  reform  in  England 

31S 


BRITISH   POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

concerning  which  the  English  people  had  al- 
ways been  in  absolute  agreement  and  about 
which  there  was  no  conflict  of  angry  emotion 
in  any  section  of  English  representatives.  But 
the  fact  remained  all  the  same  that  the  dispute 
in  the  Irish  party  had  brought  a  chill  to  the 
zeal  of  many  influential  English  Liberals  for 
the  Home  Rule  cause,  and  we  have  had  in 
much  more  recent  days  abundant  evidence  that 
the  chilling  influence  is  with  them  still. 

Among  Gladstone's  official  colleagues  there 
were  some  who  held  that  the  time  had  come 
when  an  appeal  ought  to  be  made  to  the  coun- 
try by  means  of  a  dissolution  and  a  general 
election  as^ainst  the  domination  of  the  House 
of  Lords.  This  appears  to  have  been  the 
opinion  of  Gladstone  himself.  Others  of  his 
colleagues,  however,  held  back  from  such  an 
issue,  and  contended  that  the  moment  did  not 
seem  favorable  for  an  appeal  to  the  country 
on  the  distinct  question  of  Irish  Home  Rule. 
The  general  impression  on  the  public  mind 
was  that  the  decision  of  the  Cabinet  was  cer- 
tain to  be  in  favor  of  an  appeal  to  the  country 
on  the  one  issue  or  the  other,  and  much  sur- 
prise was  felt  when  it  began  to  be  more  and 
more  evident  that  the  Government  intended  to 

316 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

go  on  with  the  ordinary  business  of  the  State, 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The  outer  world 
has  as  yet  had  no  means  of  knowing  what  the 
reasons  or  the  influences  were  which  induced 
Gladstone  and  his  colleagues  to  come  to  this 
determination.  The  whole  truth  will  probably 
never  be  known  until  John  Morley's  "  Life  of 
Gladstone "  shall  make  its  appearance.  We 
may  safely  assume  in  the  meantime  that  Glad- 
stone had  the  best  of  reasons  for  taking  the 
course  which  he  adopted,  and  that  he  would 
have  made  an  appeal  to  the  country  against 
the  decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  if  he  had 
believed  the  conditions  were  favorable  for  such 
a  challenge  just  then.  Probably  Gladstone 
knew  only  too  well  that  even  among  his  own 
colleagues  there  were  some  who  were  turning 
cold  upon  the  question  of  Home  Rule,  who 
had  never  accepted  his  views  on  that  subject 
with  whole-hearted  willingness,  and  could  not 
have  been  relied  upon  as  steadfast  adherents  in 
the  struggle.  I  think  I  shall  be  fully  justified 
by  any  revelations  which  history  or  biography 
has  yet  to  make,  when  I  say  that  Campbell- 
Bannerman  was  among  those  who  would  have 
faithfully  followed  the  great  leader  to  the  very 
last  in  whatever  struggle  he  had  made  up  his 

317 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

mind  to  engage.  There  were,  of  course,  many 
others  of  Gladstone's  colleagues  —  men  like 
Sir  William  Harcourt  and  John  Morley  and 
James  Bryce  —  on  whom  their  leader  could 
have  safely  reckoned  for  the  same  unswerving 
fidelity  and  courage.  But,  whatever  were  the 
reasons,  there  was  no  appeal  made  to  the  coun- 
try, and  the  administration  went  on  with  its 
ordinary  work  in  a  dull,  mechanical  fashion. 
The  effect  upon  the  Liberal  party  was  most 
depressing.  Men  could  not  understand  why 
nothing  decisive  had  been  done,  and  at  the 
same  time  were  haunted  by  a  foreboding  that 
some  great  change  was  impending  over  the 
Liberal  party. 

The  foreboding  soon  came  to  be  justified. 
On  the  ist  of  March,  1894,  Gladstone  delivered 
his  last  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  speech  dealt  with  the  action  of  the  House 
of  Lords  on  a  subject  of  comparatively  slight 
importance.  The  Lords  had  rejected  a  mea- 
sure dealing  with  the  constitution  of  parish 
councils,  which  had  been  passed  by  the  House 
of  Commons.  Gladstone  spoke  with  severity 
in  condemnation  of  the  course  taken  by  the 
House  of  Lords.  Towards  the  close  of  his 
speech   he   said :   '*  My   duty   terminates   with 

318 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

calling  the  attention  of  this  House  to  a  fact 
which  it  is  really  impossible  to  set  aside,  that 
we  are  considering  a  part  —  an  essential  and 
inseparable  part  —  of  a  question  enormously 
large,  a  question  which  has  become  profoundly 
a  truth,  a  question  that  will  demand  a  settle- 
ment, and  must  at  an  early  date  receive  that 
settlement,  from  the  highest  authority."  No 
one  who  was  present  in  the  House  when  this 
declaration  was  made  is  ever  likely  to  lose  the 
memory  of  the  scene,  although  not  all  or  even 
most  of  those  then  present  quite  realized  the  full 
significance  of  Gladstone's  words.  There  were 
many  in  the  House  who  did  not  at  once  under- 
stand that  in  the  words  I  have  quoted  the 
greatest  Parliamentary  leader  of  modern  times 
was  speaking  his  farewell  to  public  life.  I 
remember  well  that  a  few  moments  after  Glad- 
stone had  finished  his  speech  I  met  John 
Morley  in  one  of  the  lobbies,  and  I  asked  him 
if  this  was  really  to  be  taken  as  the  close  of 
Gladstone's  career,  and  he  told  me,  with  as 
much  composure  as  he  could  command,  that 
in  that  speech  we  had  heard  the  last  of  Glad- 
stone's Parliamentary  utterances.  That  was 
indeed  a  memorable  day  in  the  history  of  Eng- 


319 


BRITISH    POLITICAL  PORTRAITS 

land,  and  a  day  at  least  equally  memorable  in 
the  history  of  Ireland. 

I  have  had  to  dwell  for  a  while  on  these 
historical  facts,  facts  of  course  known  already 
to  all  my  readers,  as  a  prelude  to  the  most 
important  passages  in  the  Parliamentary  career 
of  Campbell-Bannerman.  When  Gladstone  re- 
signed office  and  withdrew  from  public  life,  the 
question  of  reconstituting  the  Liberal  adminis- 
tration had.  to  be  taken  into  account.  There 
could  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  Liberal 
administration  had  been  much  weakened  and 
even  discredited  by  the  manner  in  which  it  had 
put  up  with  the  domineering  action  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  effect  on  public  opinion 
was  all  the  greater  and  the  more  disheartening 
because  it  was  generally  understood  that  the 
absence  of  any  such  action  must  have  been 
due  to  the  fact  that  some  of  Gladstone's  leading 
colleagues  were  not  prepared  to  sustain  him 
in  the  policy  he  was  anxious  to  carry  out. 
There  was  therefore  a  state  of  something  like 
apathy  in  the  minds  of  advanced  Radicals  with 
regard  to  any  arrangements  which  seemed  likely 
to  be  made  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  Min- 
istry. The  new  administration  was  formed 
under   the   leadership   of    Lord    Rosebery,   as 

320 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

Prime  Minister,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
that  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  as  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  composition 
of  the  new  Ministry  was  regarded  as  unsatis- 
factory by  the  more  advanced  Liberals  in  and 
outside  Parliament.  The  Liberal  party  is  never 
of  late  years  quite  content  with  an  administra- 
tion which  has  its  Prime  Minister  in  the  House 
of  Lords.  The  real  work  must  always  be  done 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  is  obviously 
most  inconvenient  that  the  leader  of  the  Gov- 
ernment should  be  one  whose  position  will  not 
allow  him  to  have  a  seat  in  the  representative 
chamber.  The  condition  of  things  is  some* 
thing  like  that  of  an  army  whose  Commander- 
in-Chief  can  never  make  his  appearance  in  the 
encampment  or  take  part  in  any  of  the  great 
battles.  Even  at  that  time  Lord  Rosebery, 
although  a  most  brilliant  debater  and  a  capable 
administrator,  was  beginning  to  be  regarded 
as  one  whose  Liberalism  was  somewhat  los- 
ing color  and  whose  whole  heart  was  by  no 
means  in  the  advanced  policy  of  Gladstone. 
There  was  nothing  better  to  be  done,  however, 
^t  the  time  than  to  make  the  most  of  the 
altered  conditions,  and  the  new  Ministry  went 

321 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

to  work  as  well  as  it  could.  Campbell-Banner- 
man,  as  Secretary  for  War,  had  an  opportunity 
of  proving  his  genuine  capacity  for  the  duties 
of  his  important  office.  He  introduced  a  new 
and  complete  scheme  of  army  reform,  which, 
among  other  and  even  more  important  changes, 
proposed  to  bring  about  the  retirement  of  the 
Duke  of  Cambridge  from  the  post  of  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. The  Duke  of  Cambridge  was 
even  then  a  man  far  advanced  in  years,  who 
had  never  in  his  life  shown  any  real  capacity 
for  the  work  of  commanding  an  army,  and 
whose  chief  recommendation  for  so  great  a 
position  must  have  been  found  in  the  fact 
that  he  was  a  member  of  the  royal  family. 
The  new  measure  was  making  its  way  steadily 
enough  through  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
every  one  was  beginning  to  see  that  in  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman  the  country  had  found  an  ad- 
ministrator of  a  very  high  order.  Suddenly, 
however,  the  progress  of  the  measure  was  inter- 
rupted by  what  seemed  to  be  at  first  only  a 
trivial  accident,  of  which  the  public  in  general 
were  inclined  to  take  but  little  account.  The 
army  reform  scheme  had  arrived  at  what  is 
known  as  the  committee  stage  of  its  progress. 
I  do  not  desire  to  occupy  the  attention  of 
322 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

my  readers  more  than  is  actually  necessary 
with  the  mere  technical  details  of  Parliamen- 
tary procedure,  and  I  shall  only  explain  that 
when  a  Bill  reaches  the  committee  stage  its 
general  principle  must  have  been  already  ac- 
cepted by  the  majority  in  the  House,  and  the 
House  then  forms  itself  into  Committee  for 
the  purpose  of  discussing  the  mere  details  of 
the  proposed  arrangements.  During  one  of 
the  sittings  a  Conservative  member  proposed  a 
motion  declaring  that  the  Government,  or  at 
least  the  War  Office,  had  not  made  proper 
provision  for  the  supply  of  the  material  of 
cordite  to  the  army.  This  was  so  purely  a 
technical  question,  concerning  which  only  sol- 
diers and  scientific  men  could  be  supposed  to 
have  had  any  means  of  forming  an  opinion, 
that  the  House  troubled  itself  very  little  about 
the  whole  discussion.  But  when  the  House 
came  to  take  a  division  on  the  proposal,  the 
Government  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of 
seven.  This  defeat  produced  at  first  only  a 
very  slight  effect  on  the  House  in  general. 
During  the  committee  stage  of  a  measure  it  is 
quite  a  matter  of  ordinary  occurrence  that  a 
Ministry  should  be  defeated  on  some  question 
of  mere  arrangement  and  detail,  and  very  few  in 

323 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

the  House  of  Commons  suspected  on  that  occa- 
sion that  such  a  vote  was  likely  to  bring  with  it 
an  important  Parliamentary  crisis.  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  however,  took  a  very  different  view 
of  the  event.  He  appears  to  have  made  up  his 
mind  that  the  decision  of  the  House  was  a 
distinct  vote  of  censure  on  his  administration, 
and  that  he  could  not  continue  to  hold  office 
after  so  marked  a  declaration  of  disapproval. 
Now,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman  was  not  merely  actuated  by 
any  personal  feeling,  by  any  sense  of  mere 
grievance  to  himself,  when  he  made  up  his 
mind  to  this  resolve.  He  saw  clearly  that  the 
Government  had  lost  the  confidence  and  the 
support  of  the  country,  and  that  the  sooner 
the  whole  futile  attempt  at  administration  under 
such  conditions  came  to  an  end  the  better  it 
would  be  for  the  business  of  the  State.  He 
knew  perfectly  well  that  the  Liberal  adminis- 
tration was  falling  to  pieces,  that  its  leading 
members  were  no  longer  inspired  alike  by  one 
great  policy,  that  some  of  its  leaders  had  ceased 
to  be  Liberals  in  the  traditional  meaning  of 
the  word,  and  that  sooner  or  later  the  catas- 
trophe must  come.  Those  of  Campbell-Ban- 
nerman's  colleagues  who  were  as  genuine  and 

324 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

stanch  Liberals  as  he  soon  came  into  agree- 
ment with  him  as  to  the  course  that  ought  to 
be  pursued,  and  it  was  known  before  long  in 
the  House  of  Commons  that  the  Liberal  Min- 
isters had  resigned  their  offices  and  that  the 
long-postponed  appeal  to  the  country  was  to  be 
made  at  last.  Thus  for  the  first  time  it  became 
known  to  the  public  that  Campbell-Bannerman 
was  already  a  power  in  political  life. 

Parliament  was  dissolved  and  the  appeal  to 
the  country  was  made  at  the  general  election 
which  necessarily  followed.  Few  Liberals  had 
the  slightest  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  the  ap- 
peal. Some  of  the  very  measures  introduced 
by  the  fallen  Government  which  had  the  strong 
approval  of  many  advanced  Liberals  had  put 
certain  powerful  interests  and  classes  against 
those  who  represented  this  policy.  Sir  Wil- 
liam Harcourt's  "  death  duties  "  had  aroused  the 
indignation  of  rich  men  here,  there,  and  every- 
where. The  measures  which  the  same  states- 
man had  endeavored  to  carry  for  putting  the 
liquor  trade  under  the  control  of  "  local  option  " 
had  turned  the  publicans  into  an  organized  op- 
position against  Liberal  administrators.  The 
result  of  the  general  election  was  the  defeat  of 
the  Liberal  party,  and  the  formation  of  a  Con- 

325 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

servative  Government  with  Lord  Salisbury  at 
its  head  holding  office  as  Prime  Minister  and 
Foreign  Secretary  at  once,  and  with  Arthur 
Balfour  as  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and 
leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  Lib- 
erals were  weakened  in  every  sense,  not  merely 
by  the  fact  that  they  had  come  back  to  Parlia- 
ment no  longer  as  a  Government  but  only  as 
an  Opposition.  They  were  rendered  by  their 
internal  divisions  too  weak  for  effective  work 
as  an  Opposition.  Lord  Rosebery  continued 
for  the  time  to  act  as  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party,  while  Sir  William  Harcourt  of  course 
became  leader  of  the  Opposition  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  It  soon  was  quite  clear  that  the 
Liberal  party  could  not  work  together  so  far 
as  its  leaders  were  concerned.  It  was  evident 
that  men  like  Harcourt  and  John  Morley  and 
Campbell- Bannerman  could  not  act  in  any 
cordial  union  with  Lord  Rosebery  and  those 
Liberals  who  accepted  Lord  Rosebery 's  policy. 
The  result  of  all  this  was  that  Lord  Rosebery 
resigned  the  leadership  of  the  party  and  has 
ever  since  seemed  inclined  to  start  a  Liberal 
party  of  his  own,  and  that  Sir  William  Harcourt 
did  not  believe  he  was  likely  to  receive  such  a 
united  support  in  the  House  of  Commons  as 

326 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

would  enable  him  to  maintain  the  leadership  of 
the  party  with  any  satisfaction  to  himself  or  the 
country.  Harcourt  therefore  ceased  to  hold 
that  position  ;  and  now  came  for  the  first  time 
the  opportunity  for  Campbell-Bannerman.  He 
was  chosen  leader  of  the  Liberal  party  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  he  had  before  him, 
under  all  the  conditions,  a  task  which  might 
well  have  seemed  hopeless.  Lord  Rosebery  has, 
from  that  time  to  this,  delivered  speeches  all 
over  the  country  which  could  only  be  interpreted 
as  the  expression  of  his  desire  to  call  into  being 
a  new  Liberal  party  professing  a  political  creed 
differing  in  its  main  characteristics  from  that 
which  had  been  proclaimed  and  carried  on  by 
Gladstone.  Rosebery  renounced  Home  Rule 
for  Ireland,  and  refused  to  act  on  Gladstone's 
principles  with  regard  to  the  protection  of  Chris- 
tians in  the  East  against  the  alternating  tyranny 
and  neglect  of  the  Ottoman  Government. 

Never  within  my  recollection  had  any  leader 
of  a  Liberal  party  in  the  House  of  Commons 
come  into  a  position  of  such  difficulty  and  dis- 
heartenment  as  that  which  Campbell-Banner- 
man had  now  to  maintain.  It  has  often  been 
the  lot  of  the  Liberal  party  to  come  into  the 
House  of  Commons  with  diminished  numbers, 

327 


BRITISH    POLITICAL    PORTRAITS 

and  have  to  carry  on  as  best  it  could  be  done 
the  battle  against  a  Conservative  Government 
of  overwhelming  numerical  strength.  But  the 
peculiar  trouble  which  beset  Campbell-Banner- 
man  was  that  he  could  not  count  upon  the  alle- 
giance of  all  his  nominal  followers.  He  knew 
that  so  long  as  he  showed  himself  determined 
to  maintain  the  policy  of  Gladstone  he  could 
reckon  without  fear  on  the  support  of  such 
men  as  Harcourt  and  John  Morley  and  Bryce. 
But  there  were  able  men  among  those  who  occu- 
pied the  front  bench  of  Opposition  on  whom  he 
could  not  always  count,  men  who  were  publicly 
displaying  themselves  as  the  political  associates 
or  followers  of  Lord  Rosebery.  Campbell-Ban- 
nerman  went  boldly  and  steadfastly  on,  never 
faltering  in  the  least.  He  upheld  the  time- 
honored  creed  of  genuine  Liberalism,  "  never 
doubted  clouds  would  break,"  and  by  his  words 
and  his  bearing  inspired  with  fresh  courage 
many  a  true  Liberal  whose  faith  was  not  falter- 
ing, but  whose  hopes  were  sinking  low.  He 
proved  himself  quite  equal  to  the  incessant 
work  put  upon  him  by  his  new  position  as 
leader  of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  developed  a  capacity  for  debate 
which  only  those  who  knew  him  well  had  ever 

328 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

before  believed  him  to  possess.  During  all  the 
wild  excitement  of  Jingoism  which  followed  the 
movements  of  the  war  against  the  two  South 
African  Republics,  he  never  yielded  to  the  temp- 
tation which  overcame  so  many  other  Liberals, 
the  temptation  to  evade  a  passing  unpopularity 
by  suppressing  for  the  time  his  opinions  on  the 
policy  of  the  war.  He  must  have  been  sorely 
tried  again  and  again  by  the  sayings  and  doings 
of  some  who  still  professed  to  be  members  of  the 
Liberal  party  in  Parliament.  A  new  Liberal 
League  was  actually  formed  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  Lord  Rosebery,  and  its  object  appar- 
ently was  to  create  a  new  school  of  Liberalism 
which  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  party  and  with  the  doctrines  of 
men  like  Gladstone. 

Now,  if  all  this  had  been  done  in  open  and 
avowed  antagonism  to  the  existing  Liberal 
party,  Campbell-Bannerman  might  have  had 
a  comparatively  easy  task  to  undertake.  He 
could  have  braced  himself  to  do  sturdy  battle 
against  the  promoters  of  internal  disunion ; 
could  have  set  the  whole  question  plainly  and 
squarely  before  the  Liberal  public  opinion  of 
the  country,  and  demanded  a  decisive  judg- 
ment.    But  the  promoters  of  the  new  Liberal 

329 


BRITISH    POLITICAL   PORTRAITS 

League   did  nothing  of  the  kind.     They  dis- 
claimed any  intention  to  create  disunion  in  the 
party.     They  declared  that  they  were  the  very 
best  of  Liberals,  and  that  nothing  could  exceed 
their  loyalty  to  the  elected  leaders  of  the  Lib- 
eral party,  and  protested  that  in  whatever  they 
did  they  were  only  trying  to  help  and  not  to 
hinder  the  work  of  these  leaders.    When  one  of 
the  seceders,  or  supposed  seceders,  delivered  a 
speech  at  some  public  meeting  in  which  he  ap- 
peared to  repudiate  the  main  principles  of  the 
Liberal  creed,  and  an  open  split  in  the  party 
seemed  to  be  imminent,  some  other  member  of 
the  Liberal  League  hastened  to  explain  that  the 
meaning  of  his  noble  friend  or  his  right  honor- 
able colleague  had  been  totally  misunderstood. 
He  insisted  that  the  only  motive  of  the  previ- 
ous orator  was  to  promote  the  cordial  union  of 
the  Liberal  party,  and,  to  paraphrase  the  words 
of  the  medical  student  in  "  Pickwick  "  after  his 
quarrel  with  a  fellow-student,  that    he    rather 
preferred    Campbell- Bannerman    to    his    own 
brother. 

Campbell-Bannerman  took  all  these  perform- 
ances with  serene  good  humor.  As  I  have 
already  said,  those  who  know  him  are  well 
aware  that  he  has  a  keen,  quiet  sense  of  humor, 

330 


HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

and  I  feel  sure  that  he  must  often  have  been 
much  amused  by  the  odd  vagaries  of  those  who 
would  neither  fall  into  the  ranks  nor  admit  that 
they  wanted  to  keep  out  of  the  ranks.  He  has 
gone  steadily  on  as  he  began  since  it  became 
his  duty  to  lead  the  Liberal  Opposition  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  He  has  done  the  work 
of  leader  honorably,  patiently,  consistently,  and 
fearlessly,  and  he  is  recognized  as  leader  by  all 
true  Liberals,  English,  Scotch,  and  Welsh.  He 
has  never  fallen  away  in  the  slightest  degree 
from  the  principles  of  Gladstone  where  Home 
Rule  and  the  other  just  claims  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple are  concerned.  He  has  kept  the  Liberal 
flag  flying,  and  the  whole  Liberalism  of  the 
country  is  already  beginning  to  rally  round 
him  and  to  recognize  his  leadership.  Increas- 
ing responsibility  has  only  developed  in  him 
new  capacity  to  maintain  the  responsible  place. 
We  may  well  believe  that  he  is  destined  to 
do  great  service  yet  to  the  Liberal  cause,  and 
to  win  an  honorable  place  in  British  history. 
When  he  first  became  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  might 
almost  have  seemed  to  be  the  leader  of  a  lost 
cause,  but  he  has  fought  the  fight  bravely  and 
will  see  the  victory  before  long. 

331 


EUctrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &'  CO' 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.  A. 


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